Pokehearts: A Kingdom Hearts 2 Adventure
by Sora532
Summary: I am adopting this story from Yue Twili. It basically continues from where Pokehearts a Kingdom Hearts adventure left off. Warning, Spoilers for KH2 and maybe a few additions from Final Mix. Read and Review!
1. Of Programs in Passwords Pt 2

**With Yue's permission, I have decided to continue the pokehearts series just because I can and I know Kingdom Hearts 2 really well so it wouldn't be hard**.

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely no part of this story, Pokémon, Kingdom Hearts, or the OCs. Those rights belong to Square, Satoshi Tajiri, and Yue respectively.**

Ash, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Misty, and Kairi walked through the hole with Tron in hand and ended up at the pit cell again.

"How the hell did we end up here again?" Misty asked, looking around.

"I guess the path led us here," Sora said with a shrug.

Tron!" Ash cried as Tron began to stir.

Tron struggled to his feet and once he did had trouble maintaining his balance so Sora and Ash ran over and helped him stay standing.

"I don't understand, why are you here?" he asked, looking at the sextet.

"We came to give you the password," Ash replied.

"Why didn't you just transmit the data?" Tron asked shaking his head while everyone sweat dropped.

"Transmit?" Donald asked and Tron almost fell but Ash and Sora caught him and held him up right.

"Are you okay?" Goofy asked.

"I'll be alright, once we access the DTD," he replied and everyone nodded.

"Let's go!" Kairi said and they all ran to the Dataspace and fought all the heartless on the way with Ash helping Misty and Sora helping Kairi use the keyblade. Once they got there, Tron asked them what the password was.

"Belle, Snow White," Ash began

"Aurora," Donald put in

"Jasmine," Kairi added.

"Alice," Misty said.

"Cinderella," Goofy said and they all looked at Sora expectantly for the last princess.

"Kairi," he finally said.

"Kairi, got it," Tron said as he put in the password.

Suddenly there was a shake and the DTD started to glow and Tron knew immediately that it had worked.

An alarm went off saying "Now switching DTD from hibernation mode to active mode, this process will take some time so please enjoy a game while the process is running," the program said as everyone started panic, having a bad feeling about what is about to happen.

"Oh no," Tron muttered as he frantically started hitting buttons on the interface.

"Not another game," Sora said.

"This is the DTD's final security routine, this isn't a game so stay focused!" Tron said to everyone who nodded and whipped out their respective weapons and started to fight the heartless that suddenly appeared.

"Sora, I think we need to freeze the screens to end the so called 'game'!" Ash called as he had successful froze the first screen.

"Gotcha!" Sora replied as he managed to freeze the other two screens.

"How'd you like that?" Misty said and everyone else face-faulted.

Tron shook his head and approached the interface and put his hand on it and he felt a newfound power going into his arm.

When the process was finished, Tron looked at himself and felt the new power surging through him and then said, "I'm as good as new! All my functions have been restored!"

"Oh boy!" Donald cheered.

Suddenly the alarm went off again and a bolt of lightning hit the spot a few centimeters from where Tron was standing and knocked all of them back.

"Finally, I have full access to the DTD, my takeover of the system is now complete," the MCP said.

"I might have anticipated such a simple password," the MCP went on with his rant while everyone else face-faulted.

"If it was such a simple password, then why did it figure it out itself?" Kairi muttered and everyone else shrugged.

"What's this, an emergency self-destruct program for the town, let's see how it performs," the MCP said.

"NO!" Tron cried as he ran back to the interface and started hitting the buttons on it.

"Program, you changed the password," the MCP said rather irritably.

"There, that should by us some time," Tron muttered, walking over to the group.

"Tron, tell us what's going on?" Ash asked, looking nervous and confused.

"The MCP is loading a hostile program in the I/O Tower!" Tron explained as quickly as possible while making it clear so that everyone could understand what he was talking about.

"What do we do?" Donald asked.

"It's obvious, we have to protect the town," Misty said and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Let's head to the tower!" Tron declared and they ran to the tower as fast as they could and fought all the heartless that were in the way because pathway was blocked.

They kept fighting until the path was opened and quickly ran through the path and reached a new room.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Ash muttered, looking at the purple and black energy that was there.

"It must be total chaos outside," Tron muttered, also looking at it.

"I think that there is going to be trouble INSIDE too!" Donald said grimly.

"Hey, there's another one of those terminals," Ash said, pointing towards the terminals.

"That could come in handy," Goofy said, looking at it while Sora opened the chests to obtain some random gear and A NEW DRIVE FORM!

(**A/N: **It's not Final Form if that's what you're thinking!)

No one noticed Sora's new Drive Form until they saw him in the colors of his Kingdom Hearts 1 outfit.

"Whoa Sora, you look just like the day the Destiny Islands fell," Kairi commented and Sora grinned.

"I guess you got a new drive form?" Ash asked, grinning.

"Yeah," Sora replied and he realized that Donald and Goofy weren't gone.

"I guess this one didn't require my friends to use," Sora said grinning even wider.

(**A/N: **I present to you…Limit Form! A Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix exclusive Drive Form!)

"Ready?" Donald asked and everyone nodded as they ran back to see a program that was currently spinning its arms as it moved closer to the group.

Everyone stared at it until the MCP spoke, "I'm disappointed in you, Program, why do you insist on allying with these selfish Users?" the MCP asked, adding a bit of contempt to the last bit.

"Because, I want to help them, something written in my code tells me to do what is right," Tron replied.

"Really? And what command would that be?" the MCP asked coldly and Tron shrugged, turned to Sora and Ash and then said, "I can't really say for sure."

"Friends, they just help each other, that's all," Sora explained and everyone nodded their agreement.

"Uh oh, look out!" Ash cried as the program started glowing on the sides and sealed the exit.

"I guess we have to fight," Goofy said as they pulled out their weapons.

The hostile program came closer to the ground and everyone got into a stance and prepared for battle.

Immediately after the battle started Sora had an idea but first he used Quick Run to get closer to the program and then put his idea to work.

"Tron," he called and he nodded, getting the idea and they gave each other a high five.

"Running execute!" he shouted as an interface appeared out of nowhere and a large of number of small pyramids appeared

The pyramids would attack the program from all sides and it drop orbs that Sora and Ash would pick up and Ash along with Misty and Kairi were also landing combos on the program while Sora was working with Tron to beat the program and freeze it.

"Access approved!" Tron shouted.

"Take this!" Sora cried as the pyramids flew over to the hostile program and started attacking it.

Ash also had an idea and spun his keyblade and froze the program temporarily so Sora drove into Limit Form and started doing combos while Ash was also landing combos with his Explosion ability.

The hostile program randomly shot projectiles and lasers at them but while Sora was in Limit Form he used dodge roll to evade while Ash high jumped to dodge.

Sora froze the screens and Ash defeated the program.

The program fell to the ground and exploded in a large flash of light and everyone covered their eyes to make sure that didn't go blind.

"How'd you like that!" Kairi cheered.

Tron led everyone back to the I/O tower and was working on starting the terminal back up so that he could send Sora, Ash, and the others back to the user world.

"I really owe you one, with all my functions up and running, I think I have a chance to getting system control away from the MCP, now, I'd better get back to work, it's what my user would want," Tron said as he continued working.

"It's what Ansem would want," Sora muttered as he turned to look at everyone and they nodded in encouragement.

"Listen, Tron," Sora began, not sure how to explain what had happened while they were in the user world.

"We didn't get the password from Ansem, we sorta just found it back in the user world, by accident, and one more thing…Ansem, he was our enemy," Sora said.

"Why would it matter WHERE we got the password?" Ash muttered and Misty shrugged having no more ideas about it than he did.

"I mean…he still is…I guess," Sora said rather lamely.

"Well I have a confession to make as well, he's my enemy too," Tron admitted.

"What do you mean?" Ash asked, looking rather confused.

Tron stood and turned to face them before he said, "Ansem to ENCOM's original system and customized it for his personal use. I was part of that system so Ansem modified me, too. So that makes him my User. But Ansem was also the one who brought back the MCP. The Ansem I first knew wouldn't do that. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier," Tron finished.

"It's fine but…now I REALLY don't get it," Sora said and the others nodded.

"I don't…understand it either," Tron said slowly.

"But I think that Users like you are going to be the ones who will figure it out, you take irrational paths and still arrive at the answers you seek, now go before the MCP starts acting up again," Tron said.

"Any data that you need from the DTD can be accessed directly from my User's terminal, I'll keep a dedicated access channel open for you. I changed the password so you won't have to worry about the MCP for a while," Tron explained.

"Access Channel?" Ash said, looking confused.

"I knew you'd ask, it's a very important link between our worlds, it's how we stay connected," Tron said with a small chuckle as he activated the terminal.

"Oh so basically if we want to come back, we just have to use your User's terminal?" Kairi asked and Tron nodded.

The group was surrounded by data as Tron said, "You…my friends…are the new password."

Ash nodded and said, "Thanks Tron, take care."

"You too and give my best to the Users," Tron said, giving them a thumbs up as they disappeared.

Back at Ansem's Computer:

Azurill was crying and Pikachu was trying to calm it down.

"C'mon you guys, I can't keep this up for much longer," Pikachu muttered as Azurill kept crying.

In a flash of light, the sextet was back and approached the computer.

"Well that's that," Sora said.

"Look," Leon said, pointing to the computer.

They saw Sora, Donald, Goofy, Ash, Misty, and Kairi there in block form and they grinned at the mini replicas of themselves.

"Tron, hang in there," Misty said, smiling to herself.

"So where do we start?" Pikachu asked, jumping onto Ash's shoulder.

"Why don't we access the DTD?" Kairi suggested and Leon nodded.

Leon noticed the group looking around and immediately knew what they were looking for and said, "The King's checking the situation in town. He'll back soon so don't worry."

"Hey, it's asking for a password," Leon said, staring at the screen.

"That's easy its" Goofy began but Sora cut in saying his name.

Everyone else followed suit and said their own names and Leon quickly typed them in

"That's…to the point," Leon said as he typed them into the computer.

"Well?" Ash asked.

"That did it, we're in," Leon said and he turned to Sora and Ash and told them, "I have to go into town, need to see what that last shake up did," he said.

"You aren't gonna check out the data? It wasn't exactly easy to get," Ash asked, frowning.

"I'll be right back, don't worry," Leon said.

"Hey, Sora, Ash, Misty, Kairi, why don't you guys get started on loading the data and copying it down, it's just a few keystrokes, easy right?" Leon suggested as they sighed and he left to go to town.

"I think that Leon's trying to get out of doing it himself," Pikachu said and everyone sighed.

Ash and Sora approached the computer and stared at it for a few minutes before their nobodies started speaking.

_You don't have any idea of what you're doing, do you _Rallen asked Ash, sounding rather amused.

_You know me, I'm not good with computer; it was usually Brock who was good at this kind of thing _Ash replied to his nobody.

"Did it work?" Pikachu and Donald asked.

"Hey these things take time, okay?" Sora and Ash replied as they started hitting random keys on the keyboard and their nobodies merely snickered.

"_What's so funny?"_ Sora asked Roxas.

_You're face was so funny because you really have no idea about what you are doing _Roxas replied and Sora heard some laughter coming from him as well and the same thing was happening to Ash.

A few seconds later and the male keybladers looked at the screen and gasped.

"Whoa, its doing something," they both said in unison and everyone fell anime style.

"Yes, that couldn't be more obvious you moron!" Misty snapped at Ash.

"I think it wants to know what we wanna know," Goofy suggested as Sora typed in Riku's name.

"I want to know where he is too," Kairi said, folding her arms.

A few seconds later and the screen said 'data error' and Sora said, "No way, even Ansem's computer doesn't know." Sora then walked away with Kairi holding his hand.

"I want know how to get back to Cerulean," Misty said and she typed it in with Ash standing right behind her to get the same result 'data error'.

"I guess we didn't get anything from that," Pikachu said, looking disappointed.

"Guess not," Ash said, looking disappointed.

Goofy looked at the computer for a second and started typing.

"What'cha doing?" Donald asked, looking at him.

"I thought I'd ask the computer if it could tell us more about them nobodies," Goofy said as he kept typing with the keyblade bearers and Pikachu watching over his shoulder.

A few seconds later and they came across a document that was talking about the nobodies.

"What's this?" Sora asked, staring at the document.

"The data is corrupt," the voice within the computer said monotonously.

"What!" Pikachu and Donald said in unison.

"How about the Organization," Goofy suggested as he typed that in and a few seconds of loading and they got the same result.

"Stupid computer!" Sora said irritably as he started beating it up and all the windows were all jumbled up in a random way.

"Sora!" Goofy cried as he, Ash, Pikachu, and Donald tried to stop Sora from doing any more damage.

When Sora has stopped pounding, they came across a picture of some random guy.

"Who's this guy," Misty asked, looking at the picture.

"Welp, I see you managed to get things working," Mickey said.

"Your Majesty!" They all cried and they turned to greet him but he shushed them.

"Good goin' the computer should tell us the things that we need to know," Mickey said as he approached the computer.

"But it keeps on sayin' that the data inside's all ker-skuffled," Goofy said and Ash nodded.

"All we got is a picture of some guy we don't know," Ash explained, pointing to the man on the screen.

Mickey looked at the picture and jumped, "That's Ansem the Wise," he said, looking surprised.

Everyone exchanged glances before Pikachu asked, "Come on, are you just messing with us again?"

"Did you forget what Ansem looked like, Your Majesty?" Donald asked.

"Of course I remember, and this is him, I'm positive," Mickey said firmly.

"Excuse me, could you come this way please," Sora said, dragging Mickey to Ansem's study.

Once everyone was there, Sora pointed to the picture on the wall, "See, THIS is Ansem, you know, the guy that we worked reeeeally hard to defeat?" Sora explained.

"That's right, I never finished explaining," Mickey said.

"We're listening Your Majesty," Ash said and Misty quickly followed suit.

"Well the man in the picture is definitely the man that tried to take over Kingdom Hearts – the one you fellas defeated, but what you actually fought was his heartless. Ya see, he wasn't REALLY Ansem, he was just going around tellin' everybody that he was," Mickey explained.

Everybody stood there for a few seconds before Sora, Donald, and Goofy muttered, "That means…" and then a few seconds later, "WHAT!"

"We went through all that trouble just to defeat an impostor?" Sora asked, looking extremely disappointed as he head fell.

"Yup a fake but he still had to be stopped," Mickey said.

"Aw I can't believe it," Donald put in.

"Uh… I'm kinda confused, if he's a fake then what happened to the real Ansem?" Goofy and Ash said in unison.

"That's just what I'm trying to figure out," Mickey replied.

"Ansem the Wise should know all about Organization XIII's plans and what's been happenin' to the worlds," Mickey explained.

"I sure hope that he knows a lot," Misty said.

"I'm pretty sure that he'll give us some help," Mickey said confidently.

"I even came close to finding him once before," Mickey said as Goofy started to think for a second.

"Don't tell there's more, I'm lost enough as it is!" Ash and Sora said in unison.

"Well, let's see, some feller named Ansem who wasn't really Ansem became a heartless, does that a nobody was created when that happened too?" Goofy asked.

"Yup, and that nobody is the leader of the Organization," Mickey said.

"Whaaaat!" Everyone shouted in unison.

"I know I've met this fake Ansem before and I've also seen the leader of Organization XIII too," Mickey said as began to think.

"Kinda felt like being around the same fella, " Mickey added.

"Do you remember where, or when?" Ash asked.

"Gosh, I can't remember," said Mickey and they all fell anime style.

"Ansem the Wise—the real Ansem must know the imposter's true identity, that's why I've got to find him and ask him about it," Mickey said firmly.

"You…you started all of this…because of you…Riku, oh Your Majesty, do you know where Riku is?" Sora asked turning to look at the mouse.

Mickey jumped slightly at the question, "He's…" Mickey began and then he sighed.

"I'm sorry…I can't help," he replied, sounding a little sad.

Sora wasn't convinced so he walked next to the king and asked, "Really your majesty, are you sure?"

"I'm sorry Sora," Mickey said, turning away from them as Sora sighed in disappointment.

"Sora, Ash, Pikachu, Donald, Goofy, Misty, and Kairi, I was plannin' to get help from Ansem the Wise. But—now I know I forgot the most important thing, helping others should always come before asking others for help. We're safe and sound—and free to choose! So there's no reason that we shouldn't choose to help our friends," Mickey said.

"He's right," Ash and Pikachu said in unison.

"I want to go kick some heartless and nobody butt!" Pikachu cheered and everyone nodded but Mickey still had more to say.

"So let's look for Riku together," Mickey said as they heard a tremor that almost knocked everyone off their feet.

They all looked around and started wondering what was going on.

_Ash, Sora, there is a large number of Heartless and Nobodies as well as member of Organization XIII here as well! _Roxas and Rallen shouted to their respective others.

"Let's go!" Ash shouted.

"Sounds like we gotta start by helpin' out here," Mickey declared and they whipped out their respective weapons and Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder as they started to run.

When they got out of the study, they saw the heartless and nobodies fighting each other.

"Hear me my heartless, attack the white husks, sweep them away!" she shouted to her heartless army.

"What, are you crazy! We're never gonna win! I don't know about you but I'm out of here sister!" Pete shouted as he ran away.

"You pathetic coward," she said contemptuously.

The keyblade wielders tried to slip out of the way but one wrong move from Donald changed all that and also caught Maleficent's attention.

She vanished a flash of green fire and then said, "Heartless, leave the white ones, turn your attention to Sora and his friends!"

They stopped attacking each other and started attacking the group.

"I was so hoping to avoid this," Pikachu said as he sliced one in half with his Iron Tail and everyone started fighting the heartless and the nobodies.

Sora, Ash, Goofy fought the nobodies and they were the dusks and dancers while Pikachu Donald, Misty and Kairi fought the Heartless.

Misty and Kairi fought the Armored Knight and Surveillance Robots while Pikachu and Donald took on the Red Nocturnes.

"That was too easy!" Pikachu declared as they saw three figures approach them.

"Where's Maleficent?" Yuna asked.

"Looks like she ran away," Ash said.

"That was pretty lame of her," Rikku said.

"I guess we picked the wrong side," Paine said monotonously.

They then proceeded to huddle together and start talking about what they should do now.

In reality they were really just ranting about how much Maleficent sucked as the group watched rather impatiently before Sora cut in.

"Um, hey…if you're looking to pick sides, why don't you pick Leon's? They could always use some help.

This turned their attention back the group and Yuna asked, "Does this Leon have any treasure?"

"Yeah! Lots of stuff," Donald replied with a sinister grin on his face that only Ash noticed.

"Perfect!" Rikku cheered.

"Come on," Paine said.

"Who ARE you?" Sora asked, folding his arms as Kairi stood next to him.

"We're nothing worth mentioning," Yuna replied.

"Just three treasure fanatics," Paine added.

"Later taters!" Rikku put in as they disappeared in a flash of light.

"Okay," Misty said as they all sweat dropped.

"Did Leon really have any treasure?" Sora asked as Goofy started to think about it and Donald started to run so everyone else quickly followed suit.

As they kept running, they basically killed the nobodies yelling, "We don't have time for you,"

Suddenly in a flash of light, a figure with a long sword and ridiculously long gray hair with a wing on his back appeared and turned to face them.

"Sora, its Sephiroth!" Ash shouted.

"Ain't Sephiroth the one that is supposed to be the darkness in Cloud's heart?" Misty asked curiously.

"Hmph, did Cloud tell you that?" Sephiroth asked indifferently and without waiting for a response he continued, "Then he must understand now."

"Just what are you gonna do him!" Kairi asked.

"Absolutely nothing, Cloud is the one who hungers for the darkness," Sephiroth replied indifferently.

"He said he's got a score to settle with you," Sora said to him.

"I see…he wants to meet me again, so I should give him what he wants," Sephiroth said as he walked away.

"That last bit of light is always the hardest to snuff out," Sephiroth said as he rose into the air and disappeared in flash of dark energy.

"That was really random," Pikachu said.

"I second that," Misty said nodding while everyone else sweat dropped.

"What's that hole?" Ash asked, pointing to a hole in the wall.

"Let's check it out," Sora suggested as they jumped into the hole and landed in a cave.

"A purple cave? How is that possible?" Kairi asked.

"How would I know?" Pikachu replied.

So everyone started exploring but no one got very far as new heartless appeared and they just barely beat them.

"I guess we can't go any further," Ash said, looking disappointed as they climbed the ladder that will lead them out.

They ran to the restoration site to see Leon and Aerith fighting the heartless and nobodies and saw Leon slash another heartless.

"We'll help," Sora declared.

"Sora, Ash," behind you!" Aerith said

They turned around to see some Nobodies right behind them as they pulled out there weapons again and started to fight.

There were so many Nobodies that Sora drove into Limit Form and Ash used Master Form to kill them off faster.

A few minutes later, they killed them all off and Leon said, "The King's at the bailey, you better over there."

"Got it!" Ash replied as they ran to the bailey.

As they ran further, they saw all the damage the battle had done, the stairs were destroyed; the place was in taters and the walls leaning on each other.

"Whoa," Sora said, looking around at all the damage.

Elsewhere, heartless could be seen far and wide and Yuffie was getting exhausted from all the attacks from her shuriken and just as she was about to faint from exhaustion, Aerith healed her and Yuffie started to fight again.

Stitch could also be seen holding two guns and shooting goo at the heartless.

Cloud and Leon were standing back to back, fighting the heartless.

"Think you can handle this many?" Leon asked.

"Well…might be hard if one more shows up," Cloud muttered.

"I guess that'll have to be the one I take care of," Leon replied jokingly.

"What, you're fighting too?" Cloud asked and they ran, slashing at the heartless, killing them off one by one.

As Cloud fought, he was surrounded but suddenly a long blade killed half of them in one shot.

Cloud looked to see Sephiroth standing there.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud shouted.

"I understand that you've been looking for me," Sephiroth said monotonously.

"Yeah, once I get rid of you, the darkness will go away," Cloud said boldly.

"Can you do it?" Sephiroth asked quietly.

"That darkness comes from your own dark memories, do you think that you can erase your past?" Sephiroth asked.

"Shut up!" Cloud snapped.

"Face it—you turn your back on the present and live in the past because the light of the present is too much," Sephiroth said.

"You don't know me!" Cloud shouted.

"Cloud!" a voice shouted and a flash of light and Cloud had to shield himself from it.

"I know because…I am you," Sephiroth said as he vanished.

Cloud looked around and ran to fight more heartless.

"Cloud! Wait!" Tifa shouted as she was surrounded so she fought them with her fists and actually one.

Enough about the final fantasy characters; back to Sora, Ash and his friends.

"Leon, everybody, hang in there," Sora said.

They made to run to the next area but the King appeared and blocked them off.

"Ok fellas, you gotta go find Riku," Mickey said.

"But Leon and the other are friends too!" Sora replied.

"Don't worry, there's already lotsa help here, we'll take care of this fight," Mickey said.

"I have a feeling that a member of Organization XIII is here too," Ash countered and everyone stared at him.

"What gives you that impression?" Misty asked.

"All the heartless and nobodies," Ash said, gesturing to them all.

"But…I promised Leon," Sora said.

"Donald! Goofy! Take Sora and the others and get going!" Mickey said firmly.

"Riku…just give me a little time, okay?" Sora muttered to himself and Donald and Goofy stopped for a second, looked at each other and then nodded.

"Screw this," Pikachu said as he jumped to the next area while Mickey wasn't looking.

"Wah!" Mickey exclaimed we he saw Pikachu jump.

"Hey! Wait for me, buddy!" Ash shouted as he jumped too.

"Ash, wait!" Misty shouted.

"Well, let's go too!" Sora said as he, Misty, Kairi, Donald and Goofy also jumped.

Sora back up at him and said, "I'm sorry Your Majesty." He then jumped.

"Hope you can forgive us," Kairi said as she jumped and Misty, Donald, and Goofy followed suit.

"Pikachu, wait up buddy!" Ash shouted, running after his best friend.

"Organization XIII is close, I know it!" Pikachu shouted as he came to a stop.

"Are you sure?" Ash asked, summoning his keyblade and looking around.

"Hey Ash!" Sora called as the rest of the group ran over to him.

"What the hell was that about?" Misty asked him.

"Pikachu said that Organization XIII was close and just ran off," Ash explained as a portal appeared and Demyx appeared.

"Hey you're looking lively," Demyx said to the group.

"Scram!" Donald shouted.

"Didn't we catch you messing around in the underworld? How'd a wimp like you get into Organization XIII?" Sora asked, somewhat mocking the guy.

Demyx was slightly offended by that commented.

"I bet you can't even fight," Sora went on.

"Yeah but we can," Donald said.

"You shouldn't judge anyone by appearance," Demyx said, wagging a finger and everyone whipped out his or her weapons and got into a stance, ready for a fight.

Ash was thinking _Misty, I feel sorry for you._

Demyx gasped and turned to talk to himself.

"I told them they were sending the wrong guy," he muttered to himself.

"Who is kook?" Kairi asked.

"Remember the Organization is made up of nobodies," Ash reminded them.

"Right, no hearts," Sora said.

"Oh. We do too have hearts. Don't be mad…" Demyx said.

"You can't trick us!" Donald shouted

Demyx was quiet for a moment before he pointed at Sora and said, "Silence, traitor."

Sora was taken aback but Demyx's weapon: a sitar appeared in a swirl of bubbles and Misty gasped.

"What is it?" Goofy asked.

"I love the water," she said and Ash sweat dropped.

Sora turned to Ash and asked, "What's with her?"

Ash chuckled and said, "It's a long story." He then remembered all of his adventures from Kanto, the Orange Islands, and Johto and all of Misty's obsessions with water type Pokemon.

"I'm going to eliminate you!" Demyx shouted as they began to fight.

"Dance Water Dance!" Demyx shouted as he played a tune on his sitar and water clones appeared.

Ash drove into Wisdom Form and spammed Fira while everyone else attacked the clones and then grabbed them to spin them around like a lasso.

"Yehaw!" Goofy cried as he started attacking the water clones.

Thirty seconds later, Ash was out of Wisdom Form and Sora drove into Limit Form and started using Ars Arcanum on him and he was moving so fast that Demyx couldn't counter in time and took a fair bit of damage.

Everyone else started hitting him but halfway into the combo, Demyx countered with pillars of water that knocked them into the air and when they landed, he launched water orbs at them and Ash, Misty and Kairi managed to dodge by running. Sora used dodge roll to evade it and the others got hit.

Pikachu got mad and started shocking Demyx and he moved over to where Sora was and said, "Ain't it a blast?"

Sora ducked the sitar and knocked him in the air and waited for him to fall. When he did, Sora did a combo and finished with Zantetsuken.

"I've never seen that before," Ash commented as Sora used Strike Raid to attack from afar while Ash dodged Demyx's pillars with Quick Run.

This went on for a few minutes and Sora defeated him with Ripple Drive.

"No! No WAY!" Demyx cried as he faded into the darkness, leaving four blue stones where he stood.

"What are those?" Misty asked.

"Blizzard Element," Ash explained picking it up and it he felt a cold sensation seep through his skin before it returned to normal.

"Anyone from the Organization who'd like to be next?" Sora shouted as he looked around for anymore members.

"Hey Sora, don't antagonize them," Donald said.

"Yeah, we gotta go help our friends out first," Goofy added.

"Right, sorry," Sora said and everyone nodded in forgiveness and made to walk to the next area.

"Aha, there you are," said a voice that made them stop dead and they turned to see Mickey walking towards them. He looked at them with a disappointed look on his face and everyone sighed.

Mickey sighed and then said, "You sure have a lot of friends to help," Mickey said, smiling once again. "I say we all pull together and finish this battle for good!" Mickey declared.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Everyone chanted and Mickey nodded his approval and started walking.

Two heartless were fighting and one blasted a rock and Goofy noticed that it was heading straight for Mickey.

"Look out!" Goofy shouted, knocking Mickey out of the way and took the hit himself and that knocked him into rock wall.

"Goofy!" Ash and Sora shouted as they ran over to him.

"You're the king's captain, you gotta wake up," Donald said.

"Come on, wake up!" Sora shouted desperately.

"You can't leave us at this important moment!" Ash cried.

"I'm sorry about the ice cream?" Donald said and everyone stared at him.

"When'd you get ice cream?" Pikachu asked.

"Never mind," Donald replied.

"Goofy?" Mickey said hopelessly as he looked at the unconscious dog.

"Oh Goofy," Donald said, hugging his chest.

"This is not happening, it can't be happening, it…can't," Sora said as his face fell.

"They'll pay for this," Mickey muttered before stripping off his Organization XIII coat to reveal a red jumpsuit with big yellow shoes and he summoned his keyblade and he ran off.

Donald and Pikachu shouted and ran off.

Ash, Sora, Kairi, and Misty turned to the path and back to Goofy and they all summoned their keyblades and went to battle but Ash looked at Goofy for a second.

"Ash, c'mon!" Sora shouted.

"You go on ahead!" Ash shouted back as Sora shrugged and ran so Ash took Goofy's body, one arm behind his neck and started to run as fast as he could but thankfully, the others were taking care of the heartless, leaving Ash's path clear.

Ash met up with the others and they were surprised to see that he had brought Goofy along with him.

"Thanks Ash," Sora said, smiling at the raven-haired boy who grinned back.

They made to proceed to the Great Maw until there heard him yell, "Hey fellas!" That made them turn and they couldn't believe their eyes: Goofy was there, he was alright.

"GOOFY!" everyone shouted.

Goofy ran over to them and said while rubbing his head, "Ya know, that really hurt."

"Aw, Goofy," Mickey said, running over to hug his friend.

"Gwarsh, Your Majesty, I get bumped on the head all the time," he replied as Donald approached.

Donald looked at him before hitting him with his staff.

"That hurt too!" Goofy cried as he held his hurt knee while everyone else chuckled.

"Don't ever do that again!" Donald cried.

Sora and Ash looked towards the Great Maw while the Disney Trio and the girls were talking.

"Ready, Ash, this gonna be our biggest battle yet," Sora said and Ash nodded.

"Hey Sora, look what I found!" Ash shouted, pointing to four greens stones and all the keybladers ran over.

"They must cure element," Sora said, looking at the stones.

"Cool!" Misty cheered as she picked one up and the other quickly following suit.

Sora opened the chests in the area to find a map and a torn page from Pooh's storybook.

Once they were ready, they went out to the Great Maw and found that there were heartless everywhere and they were frozen in place.

"Huh?" Mickey asked, looking around.

"What's with them?" Pikachu asked.

"Hey!" Misty shouted, pointing to a cliff.

Suddenly, a portal appeared and a member of Organization XIII appeared and as he pulled down his hood, they realized who it was.

"It's the guy who's NOT Ansem," Misty shouted.

"You mean its his nobody!" Ash shouted.

"The leader of Organization XIII," Sora said grimly.

After getting a good look at the man, Mickey said, "Wait a minute, now I know!"

Flashback:

"_Wise Ansem, I am here to seek your advice," Mickey said._

"I'm glad that we have the opportunity to speak like this my friend, I'm intrigued by your hypothesis and finding it difficult to stave off the urge to test it, still I'm concerned for the stability of the worlds," Ansem the Wise said grimly.

"_Yup, that's what worries me too," Mickey replied a little sadly._

"_The doors that appeared, the place the Heartless seek. I fear my research may have brought this upon us…" Ansem said grimly as they heard a knock on the door._

_A young man with white hair and a lab coat entered the room gave a short bow and said, "Master Ansem, regarding the experiment that I presented to you the other day, with your permission I'd like to proceed."_

"_I forbid it!" Ansem shouted. "Forget this talk of doors and the heart of all worlds, that place must not be defiled," he added._

"_But Master Ansem, I've been thinking," he began but Ansem merely shook his head._

"_Xehanort…those thoughts are best forgotten," Ansem said and Xehanort sighed, gave a short bow and shut the door._

End of Flashback

"Now I remember, Xehanort, Ansem's apprentice," Mickey said as everyone stared at him.

"The leader of Organization XIII is Xehanort's nobody!" Mickey said as whipped out his keyblade and went after him.

"Let's go!" Ash shouted as they were surrounded by Heartless.

"Move it!" Sora shouted as they all summoned their weapons.

"We can't let Xehanort get away!" Donald shouted.

"Right!" Sora replied as he turned to look back at his friends who gave him the thumbs up and ran off in different directions to fight the heartless.

Sora ran off to fight the heartless on his own.

Sora used Rising Sun to kill of the Heartless while Ash grabbed a Surveillance Robot and shouted, "IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZAH!" as the heartless fired its laser and killed tons of them.

Misty and Kairi were also killing them off with magic mainly since they found easier to use vs. attacking.

Pikachu was also grabbing surveillance robots and also yelled "IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZAH!" and this caused everyone to stop what they were doing and stare at Pikachu.

"What, I can't have fun while I'm killing heartless?" Pikachu asked indignantly and everyone, even the heartless sweat dropped and they all went back to fighting each other.

A few minutes later, all the heartless were gone and everyone went up a cliff and started panting heavily.

"Where's the King?" Ash asked, looking around.

"There he is!" Kairi shouted pointing towards the keyblader, fighting off the heartless.

"C'mon!" Sora shouted as they all ran towards the spot.

"Your Majesty!" Donald and Mickey turned to look at them and back again.

"Xehanort!" Mickey shouted

"How long has it been since I abandoned that name," he said monotonously.

"Out with it nobody! Where's Riku!" Sora shouted.

"Perhaps you should ask your king," he suggested as Sora turned to look at him.

"Stop!" Mickey shouted as the nobody created a portal and walked and Mickey leapt in after him.

"He's gone," Sora said as he fell to the ground and started pounding it and Ash, Pikachu and Goofy started to comfort him.

"Way to fall right into their trap," a voice shouted and they turned around to Axel standing there.

"Axel!" Ash shouted, looking at him.

"You know him?" Misty asked.

"Yeah we met before," Ash said, remembering the incident in Twilight Town and Castle Oblivion.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy got into a stance, ready for battle but Ash didn't do anything but simply stare at him.

"C'mon, it's a set up by Organization XIII, Xemnas is using you Heartless—that's his big master plan," Axel said.

"Xemnas?" Donald asked.

"The guy you just saws, He's their leader, got it memorized? X-E-M-N-A-S," Axel explained.

"Organization XIII wants to get rid of the Heartless?" Goofy asked and Axel shook his head in disbelief.

"Man your slow," Axel said as he pointed to Sora's keyblade.

"Every heartless slain with that keyblade releases a captive heart, that's what the Organization is after," Axel explained.

"So what are those guys gonna do with the hearts?" Pikachu asked.

"I'm not telling," Axel replied with a smirk.

"Tell us!" Misty shouted.

"Axel!" A voice said sharply and a portal appeared and another person appeared.

"Uh-oh," Axel said as he vanished.

"We'll insure that he receives the maximum punishment," Saix said to Sora.

"I don't care about any of that, just take me to the realm of darkness, okay," Sora said desperately.

"Just tell us where Riku is," Ash said sharply.

"How important is he?" Saix asked Sora and Sora got on his hands and knees.

"The answers no," he said and Sora yelled, "You rotten!"

"Are you angry? Do you hate me? Then take that rage and direct it at the Heartless," he said as he snapped his fingers and a bunch of Heartless surrounded them.

Everyone got into a stance, ready to fight when Saix said, "Pitiful Heartless, mindlessly collecting hearts and yet they know not of the true power of what they hold. The rage of the keyblade releases those hearts. They gather in darkness, masterless and free until they weave together to make Kingdom Hearts, and when that time comes, we can truly, finally exist."

"It's funny how they make references to what this game is called and that Kingdom Hearts is real," Pikachu said and everyone stared at him for a second and they realize that the fourth wall was broken.

This was broken by a new voice saying, "What are you prattling on about?"

They turned to see Maleficent appearing in a burst of green fire.

"Kingdom Hearts belongs to me! The heart of all kingdoms, the heart of all that lives, any dominion fit to be called Kingdom Hearts must be MY dominion!" she declared.

"Maleficent no, no more heartless!" Kairi said.

"I do not take orders from you!" she spat as more Heartless appeared.

"Fool…" Saix said as he snapped his fingers and summoned some Nobodies that quickly defeated Maleficent's heartless.

"Oh no!" Sora cried as they turned to face him and saw Maleficent in front as she used her powers to block the group off.

"While I keep these creatures at bay, you find a way to vanquish them—forever!" Maleficent shouted.

"Maleficent," Ash muttered as the Nobodies attacked her.

"Do not misunderstand me, I shall have my revenge on you yet," she said as more Nobodies assaulted her.

"Maleficent!" Sora shouted.

"Leave! Now!" she shouted.

"I don't take orders from you!" Sora shouted.

"Sora, c'mon!" Kairi said, grabbing his arm.

"But…what about…?" Sora began but his voice trailed off as the wall between them faded away.

"Now then, where did we leave off?" Saix asked as the Nobodies disappeared and Heartless reappeared in their place.

"Which side are you guys on anyway?" Ash demanded.

"The Heartless ally with whoever is the strongest," Saix replied ordering them to attacking and Ash and Sora destroyed them.

"Yes, Sora and Ash, extract more hearts," Saix said, vanishing into a portal.

"No…the hearts!" Ash said, looking up at the hearts that had just been released as they blocked more heartless attacks.

"Maybe everything we've done…maybe it was all for nothing. What are we supposed to do if we can't use our keyblades!?" Sora said hopeless as they heard another voice.

"Imbeciles, you can't be trusted to do anything!" Maleficent said contemptuously as the group fell through a portal.

"Huh?" Ash said as they fell.

Elsewhere

Hollow Bastion was glowing with light and Leon said, "Sora! Ash! Donald! Goofy! Pikachu!"

"Relax, those five aren't going down that easily," Cloud said calmly as he turned to walk away.

"The keyblade's chosen one, their lucky kids," Cloud said as he walked away; his buster sword in hand.

Leon turned back to see that a beam of light had been shot towards the sky and said, "See you soon." After that, he also walked away.

Back at the gummi ship:

"I guess sometimes, help can come from unexpected places," Sora said.

"Sure does," Ash replied.

Flashback:

"What's this place?" Ash asked, looking around.

"It must be the Realm of Darkness!" Sora exclaimed, looking around.

"Riku!" Sora and Kairi shouted, hoping to find some sort of sign.

Donald turned to see a man in an Organization XIII coat holding a box.

Ash turned to see him and took the box from him before he disappeared.

"Hey Sora, check this out," Ash said, opening the box.

"Are you sure you want to open…that?" Goofy asked but Ash opened the box and handed the picture to Sora.

"Hey, it's the gang from Twilight Town, there's Hayner, Pence, Olette, and…um," Goofy said, unable to recognize the last one.

_Sora, that's me! _Roxas said to Sora.

_Really? You hung out with these guys? _Sora asked.

"Roxas," Sora said surprising everyone but Ash because he already knew.

"You know him?" Donald asked.

"Yeah, I know him," Sora replied and Ash had a knowing grin on his face.

Ash took the bar from the box and looked at it and asked, "What is this?"

Everybody shrugged so Ash tried it and then said, "Salty...no sweet!"

Suddenly, the bar floated out of Ash's hand and everyone stared in shock and Sora's keyblade flashed into his hand and sealed the keyhole.

"That's awesome!" Kairi said, looking amazed.

"Not yet, I gotta look for Riku!" Sora shouted as they were teleported back to the ship.

**That's a wrap! What do you guys think? I think I did okay because its been awhile since I wrote a Kingdom Hearts story.**


	2. Beast's Castle Revisited

**I'm back with a new chapter. I'll do the best I can to attempt to reach the level of greatness that Yue had when this fanfic belonged to her. Read and Review. I need as much advice as possible but NO FLAMES!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts or Pokemon because if I did, then there would be a game with these two already in existence.**

**Chapter 2**

**Pokemon Narrator: **As Sora, Ash and all of their friends leave Hollow Bastion with new knowledge about Organization XIII, they begin to look for ways to find a way into their stronghold where they can defeat them once and for all.**  
**

"Hey Ash," Sora called, as he turned to the Pokemon trainer.

"What's up, Sora?" Ash asked as he turned to look at him.

"What happened to Luna?" Sora asked him and Ash folded his arms as Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder.

"I have no idea, its like she and Fred just vanished, maybe they went to screw with Organization XIII plans," Ash said with a shrug.

"Sora, Ash, where do you guys wanna to go?" Donald asked, pointing to Port Royal, Beast's Castle, and Land of Dragons.

"What do you guys think?" Sora asked, turning to look at the other keybladers.

"I want to check out the castle over there," Misty said, pointing to Beast's Castle and Kairi nodded in agreement while Sora, Ash, and the others shrugged and steered the ship in that direction.

_Ash, I should warn you that there is a member of Organization XIII at that castle and something kinda _weird _as well_ Rallen said to Ash.

_What do you mean by _weird_? _Ash asked curiously and Rallen didn't say anything so Ash shrugged it off for now.

The group landed in Beast's Castle as Belle was getting ready for something.

**Meanwhile in Belle's Room:  
**

Belle was in her room, humming a merry tune to herself as she made some last minute adjustments to her hair and dress and she looked stunning, simply stunning.

"I hope tonight goes well," the wardrobe said eagerly.

"Me too but I don't get why he's so nervous," Belle said, looking slightly confused.

"The master does have his shy side, you know," The Wardrobe said with a wink.

**Back with the group:**

"This is a huge castle," Misty muttered to Kairi who nodded vigorously.

"It echoes too," Pikachu whispered to Misty who sweat dropped.

"Was that really important?" Ash asked Pikachu who shrugged while Ash face-palmed.

The Beast could be seen pacing across the entrance hallway waiting for someone or something to come.

"Beast, what's up?" Pikachu shouted and The Beast turned to look at them and he wasn't exactly pleased to see them.

"What do you want?" he said rather irritably and this took everyone by surprise.

"Is he always like this?" Misty asked Sora who nodded while The Beast wasn't looking.

"No Heartless or Nobodies, for now anyway," Donald said, looking around, just to be sure.

"I still have a feeling that they're close though," Ash said thoughtfully.

"What gives you that impression?" Goofy asked curiously.

"Just a feeling I had in my gut," Ash replied.

"Ash always follows his gut whether its fighting Heartless or having a Pokemon Battle," Misty said, snickering.

The Beast turned around and growled.

"Why are you so angry?" Donald asked irritably.

"Why are you here?" The Beast countered, just as irritable if not more irritable.

"Organization XIII's world has got be out there somewhere and we are trying to find a way to get in there," Sora replied calmly.

"Hmph," The Beast said and he turned around.

"Talk about an attitude," Misty muttered to Kairi who nodded as Belle walked down the stairs with a formal aura surrounding her.

"Tonight is very important," The Beast said to the group as he and Belle drew nearing to each other. When they both arrived at the door, they bowed to each other and linked arms as they walked into the ballroom.

"I think we came at a really bad time," Sora said and Ash nodded in understanding.

"There's only one way to find out," Donald said mischievously as he ran after the couple into the ballroom.

"Donald!" Ash shouted but the duck pretty much ignored all the shouts of protest as he kept running so everyone sighed and gave chase to him.

The Beast escorted Belle into the Ballroom and they smiled at each other.

"Now then, Monsieur, Mademoiselle. Please, enjoy the evening," Lumiere said pleasantly and noticed that Ash, Sora and the others had also come to the Ballroom to watch was going on and he added, "And of course our honored guests are welcome too."

The Beast and Belle smiled at each other before music started to play and the pair began to dance. For a beast, The Beast was a pretty beastly dancer and they both moved very gracefully.

A while later, a voice said, "A welcome indeed," and everyone looked up to see a member of Organization XIII.

"The Organization!" Sora shouted, looking at the man in question.

"You don't know when to quit do you," the man replied curtly.

"Oh yeah! We'll show you!" Donald shouted as he pulled out his staff.

The Beast stared at the man with anger and ran towards him and said, "Xaldin, get out!"

"Not tonight!" Belle shouted as Xaldin snapped his fingers and Nobodies appeared, which The Beast destroyed with a slash and they vanished.

Everyone whipped out their respective weapons as Xaldin said, "I've come to take something that you hold very dear."

The Beast stared at the man and roared with rage.

"Yes, let your anger grow," Xaldin said coldly as he disappeared.

"Beast, we need to get rid of these guys first," Sora said as they all started fighting the Dragoons.

They all scattered in different directions, as they wanted to kill them off quickly.

Whenever the Dragoons would attack, Sora would use Reflect and Ash would jump and quickly dive down on said nobody and actually worked quite well.

Once they killed all the nobodies, they looked to Belle was on the balcony coming back inside and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"I wonder what Xaldin meant when he said that he was gonna take something is very dear to you?" Goofy said and everyone shrugged but realization dawned on The Beast's face as he quickly ran out of the Ballroom with Belle in hot pursuit.

"What's with them?" Kairi asked as she watched their disappearing forms and dawning look of realization hit Ash.

"Sora, I think Xaldin's after the rose in the Beast's Room!" Ash exclaimed as he ran to the aforementioned room.

"Ash, wait up!" Pikachu shouted as he ran after him with everyone else quickly following suit.

When they got there, The Beast was pacing, looking pissed and Belle looked really worried.

"What's wrong?" she asked, in hopes of trying to console him. That didn't work so she approached him and pleaded for him to calm down.

"Calm Down?! You just had to have a party, didn't you? Don't you see what has happened?" The Beast shouted.

Sora and Ash approached The Beast and Sora said, "Hey! What's with you?"

"The rose...my rose," The Beast said curtly.

"What, that? He took it?" Ash asked and The Beast nodded.

"But surely you can find another rose, right?" Belle asked.

"Silence, you don't know anything!" The Beast shouted as Sora leapt in front of her with his arms outstretched.

"That's not fair Beast, don't take it out on Belle! It's not she stole it!" Sora retorted and the Beast growled again.

"I'm sorry," Belle said sadly as Ash raised a hand and said, "You don't have to apologize."

The Beast turned away from the group and said, "Belle, Sora, Ash...I want you to leave the castle." The request startled everyone as they stared at him in stunned disbelief.

"Look at me. Look at who I am, this is what I am, when you first got here, I tried to change," Beast said as they watched him intently as he continued his speech.

"I was only fooling myself. I can't be any different," he said hopelessly as he looked at himself and Ash felt a wave of pity wash over him because he more or less had gone through the same experience but at least he was guaranteed to become a regular human again when he was turned into a Pikachu. Beast wasn't guaranteed that privelage.

"I'll always be a Beast so I should live like a Beast, with no one, alone," he went on to say.

"Good-bye, Belle," The Beast said sadly.

"You can't mean that," Belle whispered desperately as Beast turned away from them.

"I think his mind's made up," Goofy muttered to Sora who nodded.

Ash turned to Belle and said, "Look Belle, leave this to us, if we can get the Beast's rose back, he'll calm down." Belle nodded and walked away.

"I don't think that got the result we were looking for," Pikachu said and everyone sighed in disappointment as they left the room as well but Ash something that caught his attention but shrugged it off for now.

Outside the Beast's Room, Mrs. Potts was talking to Lumiere and Cogsworth and she said, "Poor Child," as Belle walked pass them and gave them a sad smile and a small wave and continued on her way.

"How could it have come to this?" Cogsworth asked, looking taken aback as Sora and the others approached but made no sound as to have them acknowledge their presence.

"And they were looking forward to this evening," Lumiere added.

"No need to be sad, there's still time, once the rose is back safely in the Master's possession, this will all be over," Mrs. Potts said.

"What's so special about that rose in the first place?" Sora asked and all of kitchen objects jumped in surprise as they did not see them standing there but Mrs. Potts recovered her composure and said, "If the Master can learn to love and receive love in return," she began.

"The spell will be broken, we'll all be humans once again," Lumiere finished.

"I remember that," Donald.

"What are you guys talking about?" Misty asked, looking rather annoyed at being left out.

"I forgot that you or Kairi weren't with us when we came here last time," Ash said.

"Care to tell us what you are talking about?" Kairi asked and Sora nodded as he and Ash recounted the story about the rose as well as what they did the last time that they were there.

"That's so cool," Kairi said, looking shocked at the revelation of their adventure so far.

"Anyway, there's a time limit, he must find his true love before the last petal on that rose falls," Cogsworth explained.

"Ah, but that's not all," Mrs. Potts said.

"As time went on, caring for the rose has become a cherished part of the Master's daily life," Lumiere explained.

"It's like all of his hopes and dreams are tied to that single bloom," Mrs. Potts finished.

"Poor Beast!" Sora exclaimed.

"We have to get it back to him," Goofy said and Donald nodded in agreement.

"Please do," Lumiere encouraged and they nodded as they walked back to the Beast's Room.

"We really can't do it without the Beast because it wouldn't be very meaningful to him, would it,?" Ash asked and everyone shrugged as they went into the Beast's room again.

"Besides, if it's that important to him, he has to do it himself, all we can do is provide support," Misty added quietly and everyone nodded.

"Hey Beast," Sora called and the Beast grunted and said, "Leave me alone."

Sora wasn't going to give up that easily so countered by saying, "C'mon, you need to hear this, you used to be fearless, you would have given your life to save Belle, remember?"

Beast recalled what happened in their last adventure when Maleficent kidnapped Belle but didn't say anything nor did he acknowledge that he heard him.

"Don't you know what that meant to all of us? You gave us all courage," Sora exclaimed and the Beast didn't move an inch.

"Hmph, maybe you should have kept some for yourself, I mean are you really gonna throw your happiness away? The rose is your only hope, isn't it? Well it's the only hope for Cogsworth and the others too," Sora went on to explain.

Again the Beast appeared to have ignored everything Sora said and so he just on with the rant, "So don't throw away your last chance. Remember what it was like before Belle lived here?" he asked as the Beast had relapses of memory when he was all alone with no one to really talk to.

"I know one thing," The Beast began.

"What's that?" Ash asked curiously.

"This castle belongs to ME. Xaldin will never be welcome here," he said and everyone nodded their agreement.

Ash looked around the room and noticed a Purple portal with a scythe on it and it felt vaguely familiar to him and he suddenly had a flashback.

**Flashback:**

_A slightly younger Sora was running into the room to see a Pink haired man floating above._

_"Soon the emptiness will shatter your heart, here in this world of NOTHINGNESS!" he said as he was surrounded by petals and a gust of wind that pushed Sora back and when he was done, Sora saw a huge thing that the man was riding._

_"As lightless oblivion devours you...drown in the ever-blooming darkness!" he shouted as Sora whipped out his keyblade and started to fight him._

_It was very obvious that this was a fairly simple battle and Sora defeated the man all together and walked away and sealed the door._

_"You okay? Riku?" Sora asked._

_"Not Riku, I'm a fake. I can't remember why I was created or when or where...all I remember is my time with you and Namine, but I know those memories are fake as well," Riku said._

_"Gee Namine, can't you use your magic to put Riku's memory back to normal?" Goofy asked as he turned to look at her._

_"Well I-" Namine began, but Riku cut her off._

_"It's okay, I'll deal," he said as walked away._

_"Wait!" Sora shouted and Riku stopped walking._

_"Who cares if somebody created you? You're you and nobody else. YOu have your own heart inside you. Those feelings and memories are yours and yours alone. They're special," Sora said._

_"Sora, you're a good guy, I don't need to be real to know how real your feelings are. That's good enough," he said as he walked away._

**End of Flashback**

"Hey Sora," Ash called from his place at the portal.

"Ash, what's up?" Sora asked.

"Check this out," Ash said, pointing towards the portal.

"I don't know why, but it looks vaguely familiar," Sora said.

"Then let's go!" Donald shouted as he walked through the portal.

Kairi and Misty decided to wait there and so Sora, Ash, Goofy, and Pikachu followed Donald inside and looked around.

"The more I think about it, the more I feel that I've been here before," Sora said, looking around.

Suddenly a figure appeared and it multiplied and merged again to reveal a member of Organization XIII.

"How'd they get here?" Pikachu asked incredulously.

"Who knows but we gotta beat him!" Goofy replied.

_That's Marluxia! _Roxas said to Sora and Sora nodded and quickly relayed the information to Ash who also nodded and they all whipped out their respective weapons as Marluxia pointed his scythe at them.

The battle started with Marluxia disappearing and reappearing next to Sora and whispered something in his ear and vanished and Sora now had 40 over his head and the same thing happened to Ash.

Marluxia swung his scythe and Sora guarded it while Ash countered with a combo of his own and Sora quickly followed suit. After the combo, Marluxia teleported and attempted to knock someone in the air, which failed because they both guarded the attack so Marluxia released a gust of wind and swung his scythe really fast but Ash guarded it and jumped the next slash and spun his keblade with enough power to knock him in the air.

Marluxia landed where Sora was standing and he quickly landed a combo on the member of Organization XIII. After recovering from the attack, Marluxia summoned dark pools of energy and it pretty much consumed the entire field.

Pikachu whacked Marluxia in the head with his Iron Tail and followed with a Thunderbolt that stunned him.

As the battle went on, it got harder for anyone to land a hit so they kept dodging and seized every opening that they could possibly get a hold of at any given time.

Later in the battle, Marluxia hovered in the air and laughed evilly as he was floating on top of Sora and pillars of Dark Energy burst from the ground as everyone ran around to avoid getting hit by the pillars.

Sora used Quick Run to get away from Marluxia as he threw his scythe at him and did it again when he tried to land on top of him.

After that, he spun his scythe and moved around the field much more quickly so everyone had to run away in different directions but that didn't work out very well because they got hit and when they tried to heal, it didn't work because of the number on their head so Marluxia did his strogest attack again and everyone blocked using their respective techniques and once that was done, Marluxia swung his scythe at them while pulling them in with the wind and this time Ash had the idea to steal the scythe, hit him with it a few times and then throw it at him while in midair and that did the trick.

A few more minutes of combat and Marluxia was defeated as he vanished into thin air and was back in the form of that portal thing that got them there in the first place.

"That was intense," Ash said, wiping his forehead.

"I hope we can pull through when we fight Xaldin," Sora said as they were teleported out again.

"How'd we get back here?" Donald asked as he looked around.

"I have no idea," Ash replied, shrugging slightly.

"What happened in there?" Kairi asked Sora.

"I don't know, we just went into the portal and saw a random member of the Organization XIII and we fought and won," Sora said, folding his arms as he thought about what happened after they went into the portal.

"Can we just go after Xaldin so we can get out of this creepy place," Misty pleaded because the castle scared her.

"Alright, lets go," Sora said as they ran back to the entrance hall and once they got there they saw Xaldin again.

"So Beast, you came after all," he said and the Beast noticed that Xaldin had the rose.

"You had me worried. I was afraid that you had given up for good," he said as the Beast growled once more.

"What do you guys really want?" Sora demanded, looking at the man.

"Kingdom Hearts," he said monotonously.

"Isn't that the name of a really cool Video Game?" Pikachu asked as they broke the fourth wall.

"Didn't we agree not to brake the fourth wall?" Ash asked and Pikachu sweat dropped.

"Not that kind of Kingdom Hearts," Sora said impatiently as he, Donald, and Goofy explained what Xaldin met while Xaldin sweat dropped.

"When Kingdom Hearts is fulfilled, we can exist fully and completely," Xaldin said as he pulled down his hood to reveal a face with many long locks of jet black hair, thick eye brows and dark blue eyes.

"So you see Beast, that's why we need your heartless AND your nobody," Xaldin said as they pulled out their weapons and fought more nobodies.

"Time to go to work," Sora said as he, Beast, Ash made short work of all the nobodies that were fighting because they were good at timing attacks reacting to things in the best possible way that could potentially help them greatly.

Once the battle was over, they saw Xaldin leap gracefully and landed right in front of the door and left the castle.

"As much as I hate Xaldin, that jump was actually pretty good," Pikachu commented.

"Pikachu, whose side are you on?" Misty demanded while Pikachu chuckled slightly and said, "I'm sorry, it seemed worth it."

"I wonder how Belle is doing after what happened," Ash said, looking at the stairs that led to Belle's room.

"She's probably a bit sad about what happened between her and the Beast," Sora replied and Ash shrugged.

"Let's go take on Xaldin," Donald said as he ran out the door.

"I swear, Donald is just like you, Ash," Pikachu said so that Ash could hear.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Ash said rather indignantly, as he looked at his starter Pokemon.

"Never mind, we gotta go after Xaldin," Pikachu said as he jumped off Ash's shoulder and ran outside.

"Pikachu, that's really getting old!" Ash shouted as he chased after him and everyone else quickly followed.

When they got outside, they saw no sign of Xaldin so they split and tried to find him.

"Huh?" Goofy muttered as he looked up at the balcony to see Belle standing there with her head in her hands as she leaned on the ledge.

Belle sighed as she moved her head and saw Goofy waving up at her. Gasping she got to her feet and turned to see the rose that the Beast has been obsessed with for who knows how long.

"Is that?" Belle muttered, looking at the rose in stunned disbelief.

"Look it's the rose!" she shouted with the rose in hand as the Beast looked up and saw her smiling down at him until a pair of gloved hands covered her mouth and she cried for help but it was muffled but it could still be heard quite clearly.

"Belle!" Beast shouted as Xaldin grabbed her and leapt over the courtyard and into the next room.

"Hurry!" Sora shouted as they ran after him and the Beast shoved the door open and ran inside.

"You, get out of this castle NOW!" Beast snarled.

"With pleasure, but I'd rather travel light, what shall I leave behind, Belle...or the rose?" he asked with an evil smirk on his face as Sora and Ash got into a stance, ready to fight at any time.

The Beast growled and said, "Belle!" as he ran towards him.

Belle reacted on instinct and impulse as she elbowed him in the gut and snatched the rose out of his hand and ran away.

"That was awesome!" Misty cheered as Belle kept running.

"Good one Belle!" Sora said happily and the Beast just stared.

Xaldin was pissed by his failure so he summoned his six lances and floated into a stance, ready for a battle.

"Where's the fun in this?" he asked as the fight began. "Wind...Darkness," he said as his lances moved in formation and surrounded himself in a wind shield.

Ash blocked the lances while gaining a little bit of strength so he jumped up and hit Xaldin and repeated until he couldn't do it anymore.

Sora drove into Limit Form and used Strike Raid to attack from a distance and also to maintain his energy.

Xaldin jumped and hit the ground five times, Sora used Dodge Roll to evade it while Kairi and Misty ran and Ash jumped to get more jumps off it. Sora's dodge roll also got that effect so they used their jumps simultaneously and did twice as much damage as they would normally and it helped that they were moving in opposite directions. Sora was going down while Ash was going up.

Xaldin was now surrounded in a white light from his shoulders and up as he started to do a massive combo that had a long range so everyone ran away as he flew over them and fired a huge laser at them.

"IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZAH!" Xaldin shouted as he fired the huge laser that Sora dodged with Dodge Roll and Ash used reflect along with Misty and Kairi.

After the laser, Xaldin teleported around the field and attacked at random until Pikachu stunned it with a Thunderbolt and they all attacked at once and killed him.

Xaldin was pushed back and as his lances were destroyed, he started to fade and in the same way more or less as Demyx vanished into the darkness.

"Wow, we got rid of another member of the Organization," Ash said, looking pleased with himself.

"I know, and it feels awesome!" Sora cheered as they went back to the courtyard to make sure everyone was alright.

"Here its yours again," Belle said as she handed the Beast back his rose.

"Belle..." The Beast began but Belle cut him off.

"I know, you want me to leave the castle," she said a little sadly and that made everyone a little sad.

"What matters is...you weren't hurt by Xaldin...you're safe," the Beast said and now there were smiles all around.

"And umm...I'm very grateful to you for bringing the rose...back to me...Thank you," he said, whispering the last part so that only Belle could hear it but she giggled all the same and said, "It was the least I could do, you've been good to me and you didn't have to be."

"Listen Belle," Beast began, looking slightly nervous.

"Yes?" Belle asked curiously.

Beast faltered slightly as he turned to everyone for help.

"Say it," Sora and Ash encouraged.

"Go on," Lumiere pressed.

"Come on!" Donald said nervously.

"You can do it," Mrs. Potts said kindly.

"We have confidence in you," Cogsworth added.

"Don't be bashful now," Goofy said pleasantly.

"Belle I'd like you to stay in the castle with me...please?" The Beast requested and Belle giggled slightly as she offered her hand, which Beast took, as she said, "I will" and they began to dance.

"Maestro--Music," Lumiere said as music started to play seemingly from nowhere.

"Where's that coming from?" Kairi asked, looking around.

"That hardly matters," Ash replied as he smiled at the dancing couple.

"Hey, did you see the look on Belle's face when she grabbed that rose?" Sora asked, stifling his laughter.

"Yeah, it was awesome," Ash replied, chortling slightly.

"Yup, she sure looked like she was having fun all right," Goofy said happily agreeing with Ash.

"She is rather unique, isn't she," Lumiere put in thoughtfully.

"Always ready for a little adventure," Mrs. Potts added.

"The two of them do seem to be made for each other," Cogsworth said, smiling slightly.

"I'm so happy for them," Misty added.

"I guess our work here is done," Sora said as they turned to leave.

"We hope to see you again soon," Mrs. Potts said to the group who nodded that they may be back.

**Wow. I thought it would take longer than that to finish the chapter because of the stuff from Final Mix but I guess it didn't really add much more than there already was so that's a plus I guess. I hope I did a good job writing this chapter because this is the first time I'm doing a multi-chapter crossover so bear with me.  
**


	3. Shoop da Whoop

**Okay you guys, I will most likely update this randomly during the course of the week most likely unless there is a reason that I have to do something else like study for a test, exams, projects, and more. Anyway, I hope you guys like this and read and hopefully review and tell me what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokémon or Kingdom Hearts because if I did then there would be KH and Pokémon crossover games being distributed at all.**

Chapter 3

As Sora and Ash along with their new friends continued their journey to stop Organization XIII from whatever evil plans that they have in store for the worlds because let's face it, they're controlling the Heartless and Nobodies so they gotta be up to something. Last time they beat Xaldin and Ash sealed the keyhole to Beast's Castle to prevent it from sinking into the darkness.

"I wonder what Xaldin meant when he said that when Kingdom Hearts is fulfilled, we can exist fully and completely," Misty said, looking confused.

"It must be the power of Kingdom Hearts," Sora said as realization dawned on his face.

"So which world do you want to go to?" Sora asked as he looked to everyone.

"I wanna check out that temple world over there," Misty said as she pointed to the Land of Dragons and Ash chuckled.

"Alright, let's go!" Sora cheered as he took control of the ship and steered towards the world and they got there at light speed since they already unlocked the gummi route beforehand.

"Wow, that was quick," Goofy commented as they landed in the summit of the world.

They all landed and started exploring the burned down village.

"What happened here?" Kairi asked as she looked at the shrapnel from the fire and Sora chuckled grimly.

"The last time we were here, there was this guy Shan-Yu and he was the enemy of China and he along with some Heartless lackeys set the place on fire," Sora explained as he recalled the event and decided to keep the rest on a need to know basis.

"I wonder how everyone is doin'," Goofy said as he looked around.

"Look!" Donald said, pointing at a figure wearing a black coat that meant Organization XIII and he quickly ran away, which struck Ash as odd because he thought that they could just use the corridors to travel.

"Wait!" Ash, Sora and Kairi shouted as they made to run after them but someone calling them made them stop.

They stopped to see their friend Mulan standing there, looking as though she were out of breath.

"Who are these two?" she asked, looking at Misty and Kairi.

"Hey, no time to talk, we gotta catch that guy first!" Sora said impatiently as he gestured to where he was standing a moment ago.

Mulan turned her attention to that and said, "I'm following him too."

"Then let's go!" Pikachu shouted as they ran towards the summit.

They began to climb the mountain and look for the mysterious man but with no avail until Mulan spotted him and directed his attention to Sora who nodded and quickly gave chase with the others quickly following him.

"Where'd he go?" Ash asked, looking around.

"Looks like he got away," Mulan said, also looking around.

"How come you're after someone from Organization XIII?" Goofy asked as he turned to look at Mulan.

"What is that?" she asked and everyone fell anime style.

"I guess we shouldn't be surprised, after all we didn't tell them about the Organization because there was nothing that would have anything to do with it in the first place," Kairi said thoughtfully.

"He's the guy in black," Sora said, trying to describe him in the least amount of words possible.

"One of the bad guys!" Pikachu added.

"I knew it, there was a rumor in the imperial city about a spy in black, lurking in the mountains, I've been up here tracking him but when you arrived, I lost him," she explained to the group.

"Sorry," Goofy said sadly.

"Don't apologize, but I do wonder where he went," she said as they all looked around and they saw a bunch of Rapid Thrusters flying towards them.

"Again?" Donald asked, looking annoyed.

"Okay, first things first," Sora said as they whipped out their weapons and began to fight the heartless while Sora stopped and turned to see the man that they were looking for.

Sora pointed his keyblade at the man and said, "Hey you! Quit sneaking around!"

The man merely pointed at something behind him and Sora shrugged, looking confused and realized what he meant as he whacked a Rapid Thruster that was flying right towards him!

They both took a stance, ready for battle but there was something about this that seemed vaguely familiar to Sora, the weapon, and the posture that the man had, Sora couldn't help but wonder if he had ever seen it before and if so, where?

Sora dodged all of the man's attacks while killing off the heartless and the man was also killing them off.

Sora spun his keyblade and knocked them towards them man and they did some damage so that's what Sora did the whole battle. He dodged the attacks and countered by using the heartless as a weapon.

"I can't believe this is working," Sora muttered, looking stunned as he did it again and the battle was over and the heartless were gone.

Sora stared at him for a few seconds before he ran away and Sora gave chase before stopping to think for a second.

"That guy…no…why…would he? Riku?" Sora said curiously as he began to run and stop again.

"Are you okay Sora?" Kairi asked.

"Sora, did you get him?" Ash asked as he dismissed his keyblade for the time being.

"No, he's gone," said Sora, looking distant from the gang.

"What! You lost him?" Donald demanded while Sora scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Anyway, what now?" Misty asked as everyone tried to think of a new plan of action.

"Who are you two?" Mulan asked, pointing to Misty and Kairi.

"This is my friend, Misty," Ash said, introducing the redhead.

"This is Kairi," Sora said, introducing the brunette.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," they both said as they shook hands but got serious again with all the Heartless about.

"I think we better get rid of all the Heartless first," Goofy suggested and Donald nodded his agreement as he looked around for any sign of them to feel a great shake that almost knocked everyone off their feet.

"That was intense," said Pikachu, feeling relieved that he was on Ash's shoulder right then and there.

"What was that?" Mulan muttered, looking around.

"It felt like an Earthquake," Ash said.

"Come on, we'd better get off the mountain," Mulan said and everyone nodded as they began to run to the village.

Sora lingered as he looked back at the battlefield where he fought the mysterious man and wondered who he was and why he was there before he walked away to catch up with the others.

There was another earthquake but this time there was a blast of snow and a mostly brown figure was flying above them and roared as everyone whipped their respective weapons.

The Heartless didn't seem to notice them as it flew towards the Imperial City.

"It's heading for the imperial city, we've got to warn Shang!" Mulan cried as they watched in terror as it continued to fly.

"I'm pretty sure the author already said that," Pikachu pointed out while everyone sighed.

"Pikachu, that's getting kinda annoying," Sora said and Pikachu shrugged.

"There's no way we'll make it!" Misty said hopelessly.

Meanwhile in the Throne Room:

Shang was just beaten by the mysterious man and he turned to face the emperor with a message about something and he listened intently.

Back with the group:

"Wrong, Sora help me out here will ya!" Ash said he took the cart of explosives and everyone seated themselves on it as Mushu ignited it and they were actually flying!

"WOOHOO!" Kairi cried as they flew at high speeds towards the city and crashed into the door to the city.

"This sure beats running towards the city," Misty said as they opened the door and continued to run towards the city.

They looked around to see that everything is fine at the moment.

"Well, now…look who decided to show up," Yao said, looking at the group and grinned when he saw the girls.

"What? Is that a problem?" Donald asked, looking thoroughly annoyed.

"Nah, we're just glad that you guys aren't wearing those black cloaks," Chien Po said.

"You saw him!" Mulan asked, looking incredulous.

"Yeah—he's in the palace now," Yao said as they ran but were surrounded by Heartless.

"I swear, they just don't know when to quit," Pikachu said, looking annoyed as he used Thunderbolt on one of the Heartless as everyone pulled out there weapons for the third time since they came to the world.

Ash took care of the Bolt Towers with a summon that made Donald and Goofy vanish and Genie come in its place and it started as 'limit' Genie so they used the given attack and kept going until the time was up and Genie said, "Genie, over and out!"

"That dude's awesome!" Pikachu said as they finished off the last Heartless and ran towards the palace and found that it was stuck.

"Open up!" Sora shouted as he, Donald, Goofy, Misty and Kairi were trying to pry the door open.

"We could just climb this pillar," Ash said, gesturing to pillar as he and Mulan began to climb as everyone else sweat dropped and quickly followed suit and it went successfully unless you count Misty almost falling because she lost her grip on the pillar but Ash managed to grab her hand before that could even remotely happen.

They finally made to the top and walked through a secret passageway that led them inside and they all jumped to the ground to see a guy in a black coat standing there and everyone approached him slowly.

"Wait!" Mulan shouted and the man turned to look at him and everyone was in a battle stance, ready to fight but Sora approached and said, "Riku?"

Donald and Goofy exchanged a look and watched as the scene unfolded.

The man lowered his hood to reveal a man from Organization XIII and said, "Nope, never heard of him!" as Sniper Nobodies appeared and they all got into a stance and started to fight the nobodies.

_Who is this guy? _Ash thought and Rallen answered his question.

_He's Xigbar from Organization XIII _Rallen told Ash and Roxas told Sora the same thing as well.

_You mean that surfer dude that we met back in Hollow Bastion? That was him? _Ash asked, looking surprised and Rallen and Roxas answered in the affirmative to Ash and Sora respectively.

Ash then noticed that the guy wasn't there and when he looked around to find him, he saw that he was running out the door and they had no choice but to fight the nobodies.

The snipers kept firing lasers that Sora and Ash just kicked and teleported back to them and repeated this process while the others unleashed a combo on them and they died relatively easily.

"They just get easier and easier to beat," Pikachu said while Ash snickered.

"Guess it wasn't Riku," Goofy said.

"Sorry Sora," Ash said as he clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"I can't stay, I'm worried about Shang," Mulan said as she ran to the throne room while everyone else quickly followed.

"Oh…right," Sora muttered as he ran after them and burst into the Throne Room.

"Your Excellency! Shang! Something terrible has happened!" Mulan exclaimed and the two men listened intently to the explanation that was about to unfold.

"What is it then?" the Emperor asked curiously.

"We saw this huge flying monster fly out from the mountains and its heading towards the city!" Mulan exclaimed and everyone nodded their agreement.

"I see so what that man said was true, isn't that right, Captain" The Emperor mused and Shang flushed and said, "Y-yes Your Excellency." This naturally caught everyone's attention as the Emperor recounted what happened: A young man in a black coat had come to inform him about what happened but before he could do so, he had to fight Shang and win, which he proved to be more than a match.

"It seems that he is the one in black that everyone in the city whispers about," The Emperor mused.

"Did he mention the name Riku?" Sora asked hopefully.

"He did not offer his name, in fact he was rather rude," The Emperor replied.

"RUDE? Then it WAS Riku!" Sora exclaimed and Kairi jaw dropped.

"Riku's in the Organization?" Donald asked, looking confused.

"Gwarsh," Goofy replied.

"I'm not so sure because just because someone has an Organization XIII coat does not guarantee that they are a part of the Organization to begin with and Mickey is a perfect example of this," Ash said thoughtfully while everyone else digested this information.

"But why would he come here?" Mulan asked curiously while Sora crossed his arms in confusion when they felt a massive shake and took them by surprise.

"Let's go check it out," Ash said to Sora as they left the throne room with everyone else following them.

"Mulan!" Shang began but Mulan cut him off.

"Shang—guard the Emperor, I'll be fine with them," Mulan said.

"Th-that's right," Sora stammered as they left the throne room

"I bet it's a huge heartless so how are we gonna beat it?" Kairi asked as they kept walking.

"We'll do it the same we've been doin' it since this adventure began," Ash said happily.

"What's that?" Kairi asked.

"Just go for it," Ash replied simply and Kairi sweat dropped.

"Okay then," she said as Mulan opened the door and the Heartless tried to get inside, which took Mulan by surprise. Ash gave a word of encouragement as they all ran outside to find it flying around.

As it swooped down to attack them, Ash and Sora dodge rolled while everyone dove for cover.

The male keybladers quickly recovered and ran to grab hold of the beast and Mulan, Misty, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy are quick to follow (Pikachu being on Ash's shoulder at this time).

Sora and Ash were on its back and it roared so both of them grabbed a hold of something so they wouldn't fall while everyone else landed safely on the ground and were looking for an opening to start attacking.

Sora attacked one of the spikes while Ash attacked the other and they destroyed them both at light speed and. This caused the Stormrider Heartless to become stunned and fall to the ground so Misty and Kairi created their own special combination and they used it to deal massive damage while Sora used Round Break to do a Ground Combo and Ash used Aerial Dive to do an Air Combo and their combined damage was pretty massive so that was a valuable asset.

Stormrider was no longer stunned and sent a powerful gust of wind at them as it took off again and forced everyone back.

Stormrider tried firing electric bolts at them and they partially worked because they hit Sora and Misty but Ash wasn't affected in the least because of all of Pikachu's electric attacks on him during their adventures.

The beast used bombs next and that pretty much KO'd Pikachu, which Ash quickly caught in his arms and placed him in his backpack for safety and it also took down Misty who was now unconscious.

Sora gritted his teeth in pain as he got hit by an electric attack and was healed by Donald's healing spell.

Ash used cura on Misty and she was ready to go and they high-fived and continued to fight the giant Heartless.

"Mulan!" Sora called and she nodded saying, "For China!" as they were surrounded by fire and they flew up and attacked the monster with a barrage of fiery attacks and Mushu finished with a huge meteor attack that also did a great deal of damage as well.

After that, the Heartless swooped down and Sora slid underneath and unleashed a combo on it and knocked it into the air and stunned it again and Ash took this opportunity to do a combo of his own and completely dominate the heartless and Sora doing the same thing.

It then landed near the staircase and prepared a huge electric beam that it fired and everyone dodged it successfully both times and the electric walls disappeared and it swooped down on them and Ash slid underneath and bashed it and pretty much killed it.

It slowly lost height and was going to crash into Mulan but Shang shouted her name and wrapped his arms around her and the heartless vanished in a flash of light as a large heart floated into the sky.

"Way to go!" Sora cheered as Shang helped Mulan to her feet and they stared at each other while the group exchanged knowing grins and they quickly separated with a small blush on their faces.

They saw huge fireworks appear in the sky and everyone stared at them for a few seconds, enjoying the beauty that was fireworks and how amazing they are.

They all went back to the Throne Room where the Emperor showed the group his gratitude.

"Once again, you have served China well, it would please me to reward you, what is it that you wish?" he asked.

Donald clapped his hands together and was hoped for riches while Goofy rubbed his belly and wanted a good meal while Sora and Ash were in deep thought.

"Well…" Sora began, wondering how to best phrase his question.

"Go on," The Emperor encouraged.

"You say a guy in black came to see you, what did he say?" Sora asked curiously.

"That is all you request?" the Emperor asked incredulously and Sora nodded while Donald and Goofy sighed.

"Dragons have crossed our lands and left a great web of paths. These dragons wield much power and they are the source of many gifts to both man and nature. But it would seem that someone of evil intent disturbed one of our dragons and turned it into what you call a Heartless. It is my belief that this young man came to warn me of that danger and then, I could alert and prepare my troops," The Emperor explained.

"Did you?" Ash asked curiously.

"I was about to, but he told me that the situation had changed," he explained and Shang took over from here.

"He said seven 'wise guys' had arrived and they would take care of things," Shang said as he continued the Emperor's tale.

"That's gotta be Riku!" Sora and Kairi said happily as they danced like idiots.

Donald and Goofy exchanged a look before Goofy asked, "But what's he doin' hangin' out with Organization XIII?"

"No idea, but at least we know he's okay, that's good enough," Kairi said happily.

"Yeah, that's good," Pikachu said, even though he hadn't met Riku.

"Pikachu, how are you feeling buddy?" Ash asked.

"Much better after that bit of rest," Pikachu said as he climbed back onto Ash's shoulder.

"Ash, Pikachu, do you have a request?" he asked, turning to look at the Pokémon trainer.

Ash and Pikachu exchanged a glance before shaking their heads and the same held true for Kairi and Misty as well.

"Now then, Fa Mulan, do you have a request?" the Emperor asked.

"Can Shang…I-I mean…well…the Captain," Mulan said, trying to think of the best way to convey her request.

"Yes. Yes. My dear, what is it?" The Emperor asked.

"Can the Captain have a vacation please?" Mulan asked and Shang was shocked.

"I hardly expected such humble requests but in this case, I am afraid I must refuse," he said as he got to his feet.

"Captain Li's responsibility is to protect the Emperor and yet Mulan…" he said thoughtfully.

"Yes?" she asked curiously.

"Would you like to serve alongside him and protect me?" he asked.

"What?" Shang and Mulan said, looking taken aback.

"Two reeds together are stronger than one, but the choice is yours alone," The Emperor said.

"Thank you, Your Excellency!" Mulan said as she bowed once more and Shang approached her with a smile on his face.

Sora watched this with a smile on his face and he wiped his eyes and Kairi went over to console him as they continued to watch him with smiles all around.

Ash noticed something in the symbol in the wall with the dragon crest so he whipped out his keyblade and everyone stared at him.

"Ash, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Misty asked him.

"My job," he said simply as he pointed at the symbol and a light came from the keyblade and there was a faint click and the lock vanished.

"I guess that's it," Ash said as he dismissed his weapon.

"I guess its time for us to move on," Sora said and Kairi nodded in agreement.

"Let's go," Ash said as they left the throne room.

When they were finally on the gummi ship, they agreed that they would go to Olympus Coliseum and they'd be there in the morning and Ash and Misty pulled out their sleeping bags and went to sleep while everyone else slept in the chairs.

**What do you guys think? I think I'm getting a little bit better at this but we'll see as time goes on so Read and Review!**


	4. Let the Games Begin

**I'm back. Since I have more free time, expect faster updates for all In-Progress stories. Read and Review so I can get some good feedback because I've got some new ideas for this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokémon or Kingdom Hearts because if I did, Final Mix would be available in the US.**

Chapter 4:

As Sora, Ash and the gang depart from Land of Dragon's after Ash successfully sealed the keyhole in the throne room and they left the world.

"Where should we go next?" Ash asked as he turned to look at the rest of the group.

"I think we should visit Olympus Coliseum because I think we could use a little brushing up on our skills, especially Misty and Kairi," Sora said and that resulted in Kairi smacking him lightly on the shoulder but Misty pulled out her mallet and started chasing him around the ship.

"Now's not the time for that!" Donald shouted as Ash took away the mallet and Misty pouted as Goofy steered the ship towards the coliseum and Sora and Ash started shooting at heartless and nobody ships.

With Luna and Fred:

"Whee!" Luna cried as she flew around the Organization's stronghold with Fred clinging to her fearing for his life as she lobbed something down at the castle and it exploded.

"What the hell is going on?" Xigbar demanded as he saw Luna fly away and he silently cursed under his breath.

With Sora and the gang:

"There don't seem to be any heartless or nobodies, for now anyways," Sora said, looking around.

"What's that?" Ash asked, looking at the new coliseum.

"The underdrome," a voice said and they turned to see Auron walking towards them with an emotionless look on his face.

"The what?" Ash asked, looking confused.

"The Underdrome, the creatures of the underworld used to clash there but Zeus did not like the senseless fighting so he locked the coliseum down," Auron explained.

"How'd it get unlocked?" Sora asked.

"Some fool must have broken the seal," Auron said indifferently as Ash shifted uncomfortably.

"Auron, we should catch up!" Pikachu suggested but Auron ignored him.

"If you want something to do, go help your friends," he said, pointing towards Hercules and Meg and left.

As the group approached, Hercules said, "Hey."

"Herc, you feeling any better?" Sora asked.

"Who's he?" Kairi asked Misty who shrugged and Ash sighed as recounted their adventure at the coliseum the last time around.

"Well, same routine," Meg said, "Wonder boy here thinks his hero days are over, and Phil thinks it's all in his head," she added.

"Gwarsh Herc, we know you're a hero," Goofy said to Hercules as a disembodied voice said, "That's right, Blunder boy." And in a puff of smoke, there stood Hades in all of his cheap glory. "How can you mope on a momentous day like today?" he asked while the others glared at him coldly.

"The Underdrome's back and you are gonna fill the stands," he said as he looped an arm around Hercules and smiled evilly.

"After all, your fans won't settle for anything less than a certified hero," he said as Herc clutched his hand and formed a fist.

"I mean if you are not up for it, you could always, oh I don't know, LOSE!" he said, shouting the last word for no reason.

"I bet you'd like that!" Pikachu shouted as Hades ignored him and the others.

"Excuse me? Hey, I'm not a selfish guy," Hades said as Ash, Sora, Pikachu, Goofy and Donald exchanged skeptical looks at each other but Hades caught them and said, "I'm not a selfish guy! I'm not like those high and mighty snobs up on Olympus, I stand for the masses and have I got a MASSIVE idea," he said as Sora and Ash exchanged a look that clearly showed their disbelief.

"The games ladies and gentlemen, are back!" Hades said in an announcer's voice while the others merely listened to him rant about who knows what.

"Yours truly Hades, the one and only Lord of the Dead, brings you the ultimate games to celebrate the reopening of ultimate coliseum!" he shouted as the group listened with their interest peaked.

"We'll finally answer the age-old question, who deserves the title "Ultimate Hero!" these games are gonna settle the debate once and for all, the winner reigns supreme," Hades said and everyone's curiosity was mounting at what he was talking about.

"Of what? You guessed it, The Hades Cup!" Hades shouted as Sora and Ash watched the speech intently as they thought about whether or not to enter.

"And I assure that the "Great Hercules" will be there," Hades said as he emphasized on the Great Hercules and stopped to think of a reason for him to enter while Herc put an arm around Meg and this gave Hades an idea.

"You will never see you girlfriend again," he said to Hercules as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Low life!" Sore shouted.

"You're too kind kid," Hades' disembodied voice said to Sora.

"What do you guys think?" Ash asked the group as he waited for their opinion on whether or not to enter the cup or not.

"I think Misty and I need to do some training with the keyblade before we can consider competing in something like this," Kairi said to Sora who nodded in agreement.

"Well if that's the case, then go up the stairs over there and ask for Phil, I'm sure that he'll be more than happy to train you," Ash said, pointing to the stairs and the girls quickly ran towards them so they could begin their training.

"What do you guys think? Should we enter the tournament or not?" Sora asked the other four.

"I don't know, it feels like a trap," Ash said as Pikachu nodded in agreement.

"We don't really have much choice, if Herc doesn't compete, he'll lose Meg!" Donald exclaimed.

"We can join up with Herc and fight our way through the rounds and win the tournament, Phil would then declare all of us True Heroes!" Sora said eagerly.

"I bet this is part of the reason you want to enter the tournament," Ash said with a knowing smile on his face.

"We can't be junior heroes forever you know," Donald said in protest while Ash chuckled in agreement.

"I'm handling registration for the Hades Cup, don't go to Panic for that one," Pain said when Sora and the other approached him.

"Yeah, the tournaments are a great to spend time if you get bored and have nothing better to do," Panic said.

"We should get registered and if we have some time, try out those other tournaments as well," Ash suggested and the others nodded in agreement as they signed up for the Hades cup and waited for their turn to compete.

"Who do we face first?" Hercules asked.

"Let's see," Sora said as he examined the tourney board.

"It says "Spin Strike"," Ash said, reading the board.

"Look! Auron is in the tournament too!" Donald exclaimed and true to his word, Auron's name was indeed on the tourney board along with all the other teams.

"Uh-oh, we might have to fight him in the finals!" Goofy exclaimed and Sora, Ash, and Pikachu would hate to have to fight him.

"I bet he's a real hero, huh?" Herc said.

"Well, I don't think he's a bad guy…" Sora said, his voice trailing off into nothingness.

"But you're the only hero around here, you know that!" Ash exclaimed, continuing from where Sora left off.

"You mean I was…" Herc said monotonously and Pikachu snapped saying, "Yeesh, enough is enough."

"Let's go," Goofy said as Sora, Ash and the others made their way to the battlefield and their opponents turned out to be heartless that they managed to beat in less than a minute so they divided and conquered.

A short while later, the arena was empty apart from them and Ash asked, "How's it going champ?"

"I'm just not what I used to be, sorry for dragging you guys down," Hercules said dejectedly.

"Don't throw in the towel Herc, we still need in the second round and in the rest of the tournament," Sora said, trying to restore Herc's confidence but with little to no avail.

"Are you ready for the semifinals, kid?" Pane asked Sora who nodded and they examined the board.

"Okay, so we're at the semifinals," Ash said as he looked for their opponents.

"Wak! It says "Bad Alert"!" Donald exclaimed, looking thoroughly surprised by this new piece of information.

"Are they any good?" Hercules and Pikachu asked in unison.

"They sound like they ARE "bad" but we can't chicken out of the tournament now," Ash replied as he turned to look at Herc.

"It's show time," Pane said to the group as they hopped into the boat and went to fight the next set of opponents waiting for them.

Like last time, it was more heartless and again, the group defeated them in record time like always.

"We made it to the finals!" Ash cheered because he'd never made it to the finals of any of his leagues up to this point.

"If we win, then we'll all be heroes!" Donald cheered.

"Oh, that's why you're so happy!" Goofy said with a grin on his face.

"Hey, we can't be junior heroes forever," Sora put in.

"I'll try not to mess things up," Hercules said as dejected as every and Donald turned to him and said, "Enough already…"

"Look over there," Ash said, pointing to something behind them and they turned to see Auron facing away from them.

"I guess he must be our final opponent," Pikachu said as Sora called to him only to have him glance at them with a dark red aura surrounding him and it gave Ash a feeling of foreboding for some reason but didn't press for information.

"And you are?" he asked indifferently and this definitely took everyone by surprise.

"Huh?"

"Auron?"

"I must defeat you and atone for my crimes," he said as he briskly walked away from the arena for the final round.

"What was that about?" Sora asked, looking confused at what was going on but Ash quickly gave chase with Pikachu and Sora quickly following.

Ash, Sora, and Pikachu went to the cave of the dead entrance and snuck inside, they made to proceed further but Sora held Ash and Pikachu back, gesturing for them to be quiet as he pointed at the scene that was unfolding between Auron and Hades.

"Okay, let's review, state your crime prisoner," Hades said in a commanding tone and Sora and Ash glanced at each other in disbelief before they heard Auron respond.

"I exist, that is my crime, it is…inexcusable," he said in a monotone as Hades smiled his evil smile.

"Good…oh very good," he said, looking pleased.

"What's wrong with Auron? He's never acted that way before," Sora muttered and Ash shrugged while Pikachu shushed them so they could hear the rest of the conversation.

"Okay, so you made one lousy mistake: you exist, but hey, I'm a forgiving guy, you keep your end of our little deal and I'm willing to overlook a transgression or two," Hades said with a devious smile on his face.

"I understand, defeat Hercules," Auron muttered as Hades turned to face him.

"And his meddling friends," Hades added.

"What? No! Only Hercules!" Auron persisted while Hades tutted in disappointment.

"Oh, don't tell me you've forgotten whose in charge?" Hades said as he pulled out a statue and put a hand on Auron's shoulder and that same red aura appeared and moving from Auron to Hades and that aura went to a statue of Auron that Hades was holding in his hand.

"Hercules AND the other five, are we clear?" Hades asked Auron.

"We're clear Hades," Auron grunted.

"Lord Hades," Hades said.

"Lord Hades," Auron corrected himself.

"Good, now go," he commanded, gesturing towards the door and Auron left the room to get ready for the finals.

"So that's how he's controlling Auron," Ash said as he took note of the statue Hades was holding as he went back to his personal chamber deeper in the cave.

"What a jerk," Ash said coldly.

"He'd probably think that was a complement," Goofy said as he and Donald entered the room.

"When'd you get here?" Pikachu asked, looking surprised.

"Never mind that," Ash said as Sora picked up the conversation by saying, "I can't stand seeing Auron doing that lowlife's bidding…we gotta help him!"

Auron passed and Sora tried and failed to stop him so they quickly chased after him and tried to stop him from getting in the boat but that didn't work either.

"I wonder how Misty and Kairi are doing with their training?" Ash mumbled to Pikachu who shrugged.

**With Misty and Kairi:**

Misty and Kairi were destroying barrel after barrel with their magic and they felt different sensations inside their hearts and sent that energy through their keyblades and they attained new abilities and stamina to do new things.

"Wow," Kairi said as she moved around faster than before and managed to cast spells more quickly and consume MP.

"This is awesome!" Misty said happily as she moved around faster and managed to strike with more speed and accuracy.

"I see you two are doing well," Phil commented as he watched them destroy more barrels with ease.

"Yeah, thanks for letting us use the arena, Phil," Kairi said happily as she destroyed another barrel with Thundara.

"No problem," he grunted as he walked away with a grin on his face thinking _those two remind of someone I met before._

**Back with Ash and Sora:**

"Hey guys, what's wrong?" Hercules asked, looking at the quintet.

"Auron's in trouble! It's like Hades brainwashed him or something!" Sora exclaimed.

"He's using some kind of a statue," Goofy put in and Hercules began to think before saying in a tired tone, "You know what, that sounds kinda familiar."

"Hmm…Hades may be using the statue to hold Auron's free will hostage," Herc said as realization dawned on his face.

"What do we do?" Donald asked.

"See if you can find that statue, it's gotta be somewhere in the underworld," Herc replied.

"Right, we got this," Ash said, pointing to himself and Sora.

"Tell me you aren't thinking of leaving, you've got a match coming up," Hades said as he leaned on Ash's shoulder.

Everyone exchanged a nervous glance before Herc said quite bravely, "I'll fight Auron in the final, one on one."

"Oh you will," Hades said as he began to think.

"I'll draw things out to buy you guys some time," Herc said to Sora.

"But…" Sora began Herc cut him off by saying, "Just hurry back, I know you can do it!"

At that moment, Hades turned back to face them and said, "Congratulations, you got yourself a deal, on one condition."

"What's that?" Ash asked curiously.

"The winner has to meet the keybladers and his friends in one final clash, whaddaya say?" he asked.

"That'll drive the crowd wild," Hercules said monotonously.

"It'd better because I promised them the performance of their afterlives," he said as Herc and Hades got into the boat and the quintet tightened their fists as Herc left for the Underdrome.

"Sucker, you know for me, the rest is smooth sailing," he said nonchalantly as the boat made its way to the entrance and the coliseum admitted them inside.

The quintet nodded and left for the cave of the dead entrance and just kept running, killing all the enemies that they happened to see.

When they made it to the inner chamber, Sora noticed a symbol with a book on the front of it.

"What's this?" Sora asked, looking at the symbol.

"I bet its one of those absent silhouettes," Ash said as he looked at the symbol and something hit him like a pile of bricks.

_Flashback:_

_A younger Riku was holding his weapon against a man in a black coat with weird shaped hair and was stealing Riku's energy and somehow acquired copies of his weapon. _

"_You're finished!" Riku shouted as he slashed at the man and he faded away to darkness._

_End of Flashback._

"This was just like Beast's Castle, remember Sora?" Donald asked and Sora nodded as they proceeded inside and looked around to see that same man holding his book as weapon so everyone else whipped out their weapons and Pikachu leapt off Ash's shoulder so he could fight too.

The battle started with Zexion trapping Donald and Goofy in books and while Sora used Round Break and Flash Step to get them out, Ash went after Zexion and muttered, "Ienzo," which made him flinch but long enough for Ash to get in an air combo with Aerial Finish.

Soon both Ash and Sora were also trapped and were forced into the book world so Sora jumped the explosion while Ash used quick run to dodge and Sora did an air combo on him and swung his keyblade and got them out, which temporarily stunned him enough for Sora to combo him but he wanted to end this quickly so he drove into Limit Form and started a chain of limits with Sonic Blade but was again trapped in the book world.

A book flew at them that trapped Pikachu and it got itself out by using Thunderbolt on the pages and Ash lost control of his body somehow and Goofy had to pin him down while he got his control back and after five minutes of random events happening, he got his control back but Zexion changed the field and now it had three spotlights and Ash figured out that they'd have to figure out which one is blue in order to be safe. Ash told Sora this and Sora carefully timed his Quick Run and pulled everyone along to safety as they watched the meteors crash into the barrier while Ash was attacking the silhouette of Zexion and finally got them out of that place.

Sora did one last combo and finished with Ripple Drive and the absent silhouette vanished into thin air as they left the field.

"That was the weirdest battle I've ever been in my entire life," Sora said as they all sat down to take a break.

"I hear ya," Ash said, nodding in agreement.

A few minutes later and everyone was back on their feet and headed to Hades' Chamber and founded the statue on the table and when they grabbed it, they were electrocuted but Ash took the least damage because he was used to Pikachu's thunderbolts on him so it was no trouble but after the shock had worn off they had heard voice from Auron's past telling him to go back.

"I get it, this is what belongs in Auron's heart," Sora said, looking at the statue.

"I guess he musta had a pretty rough life," Goofy commented.

"Yeah but in the end, that's really what made him stronger," Ash said thoughtfully as he thought about the things that had happened so far.

"Let's give it back!" Donald suggested as they made to leave but nobodies surrounded them.

"Nobodies! Where did they come from?" Sora asked in exasperation as they killed them off one by one and killed them but they kept coming back.

"Hey, go away!" Donald shouted as another one appeared but the heartless attacked the nobodies and the quintet took this as their cue to make a run for it.

"Not what I had in mind but I'll take it," Sora said as they ran.

They quickly ran back to the Hades Cup registration area and went to rescue Herc and they saw him fighting Auron and close to losing as well but they made it in time to stop him.

"Auron, No!" Ash shouted.

"Here you go, Auron, this belongs to you!" Donald shouted as Sora threw the statue and it exploded in a flash of light and Auron stopped his attack and they both started breathing heavily.

"Sora. Ash. Pikachu. Donald. Goofy." He said to each one of them.

"Auron!" they all chirped happily.

"Why those little…ugh, prisoner, what happened to our mutual agreement, I can give you a clean slate but you gotta work with me," he said looking thoroughly frustrated at the outcome of what happened.

Misty and Kairi appeared and stood silently next to them as they watched the scene unfold.

"Maybe you didn't hear me, this is MY story, and you're not part of it," Auron said curtly and that was the last straw for Hades as in a burst of fire, Hades disappeared from his throne and came to the arena.

"That's it! This game is over, I've played by the rules so far," Hades said as everyone watched him with disbelieving looks.

"Okay, I confess, I was hoping Wonder Boy would lose but it was still a fair fight, come on, is that really so WRONG?" Hades asked.

"Really, a fair fight?" Sora asked mockingly as the other snickered.

"Laugh, laugh, laugh all you want, but the laughing is about to stop, you wanna know why? Because now we're gonna play by my rules," he said as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Hades snapped his fingers and a door opened to who knows what and he took Meg and said, "Hey I warned you right at the get-go, you don't compete, you lose the girl."

"Hercules!" she cried as Herc ran after her and jumped.

(Vim and Vigor starts to play)

"Looks like Wonder Boy's dropped out of the standings," Hades said as everyone clutched their hands into fists.

"Well you still got us to deal with!" Sora declared boldly as they whipped out their weapons and Hades popped behind and turned red saying, "Oh yeah, this is gonna be good."

They fought as hard as they could but couldn't do any damage at all and Hades laughed at their failed attempts.

"We can't win!" Ash muttered.

"How come?" Pikachu asked.

"Because it's his underworld," Auron replied.

"Geez, then how do we beat him?" Goofy asked.

"I think a true hero should be able to help," a voice said and they all turned to see Herc standing there, holding Meg in his arms.

"But…you…" Hades said, stuttering random stuff.

"I owe you one Hades," he said as they all turned to face him.

"I didn't hesitate to give my life for Meg's and then I remembered: a true hero is measured by the strength of his or her heart," Herc said with a proud smile on his face before adding, "I'll never forget that again."

"Just no more crazy stunts," Misty said as they all snickered.

"People always do crazy things when they're in love," Herc said and they snickered.

"What is so funny, you imbeciles!" Hades shouted while everyone turned to look at him with looks of boredom on their faces.

"How dare you get a happy end, how DARE you!" Hades shouted as they pulled out their weapons and went to work fighting the lord of the dead.

"Hmph, that's it," he said as the battle began.

Hercules summoned two Aura Spheres that Ash and Sora each whacked at the lord and made him reverted to his true form and they took the time to do a series of combos until he teleported.

Misty and Kairi were fighting from afar and Kairi was spamming Thundara until she felt an electrical feeling in her heart and channeled it to her keyblade, which gave off a yellow glow and she was now using Thunder Bolt. Misty was using Blizzara from afar and she felt a chilling sensation in her heart and channeled that to her keyblade and she was now using diamond dust.

"Wow," Sora said as he watched their combos steadily improve and Hades was red again and had summoned a huge orb of fire from nowhere and it was raining fireballs and it was near impossible to avoid so everyone got hit because the couldn't time reflera fast enough to block the damage.

"I'm on fire!" Hades shouted as he launched a fireball at Pikachu and sent him flying.

"I gotcha buddy!" Ash shouted as he caught him in his arms and his keyblade was at the edge of the arena.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked.

"I'll be fine, but let's deal with this guy first," Pikachu said as he whacked his head with an Iron Tail that knocked him out.

"Cool, that was easy," Sora said as he finished him off.

Unfortunately, Hades managed to teleport at the last second and was standing on another platform, clutching his side and steadily moving backwards.

"It's…not over…yet," he said as he fell into the pit.

"Is that pit bottomless?" Ash asked curiously.

"Who knows? But we should get out of here," Hercules suggested as everyone left the underworld but Auron.

"What will you do now?" Ash asked Auron.

"I lived my life defending others, but now there's no one left to protect. Maybe…it's time I started my own story," Auron said thoughtfully as he thought about the idea.

"Go for it Auron, you deserve it, after everything you've been through," Sora said encouragingly.

"I suppose I should thank you," Auron said with a smirk.

"Not at all," Sora replied.

"Fine," Auron said with that same smirk on his face as he walked away.

"I mean, you could thank us…a little," Ash said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"You should mean what you say and say what you mean," Auron countered with a frown on his face.

Auron turned to look at them again before saying, "I guess I could spare a few words, Sora, Ash, Pikachu, Donald, and Goofy, as well as those two girls, thanks for meddling," he said as the group fell anime style and Auron chuckled as he walked away.

The quintet left the underworld and made their way back to the coliseum and saw Meg and Herc standing there with smiles on their faces and along side them were Misty and Kairi.

"Thanks you guys, you're the best," Herc said with a grin on his face.

"Misty and Kairi helped to with those styles," Ash and Sora said in unison and the two girls smiled in victory.

"Excuse us for meddling," Donald said irritably.

"Aw someone's feather's are a little ruffled," Meg said teasingly as Ash and Sora chuckled at Donald's reaction.

"I'm just kidding. Thank you, Sora, Ash, Pikachu, Donald, Goofy, as well as you two," she said, gesturing to Kairi and Misty.

"So where are you guys headed next?" Herc asked eagerly.

Sora crossed his arms and watched them intently for a few seconds before replying, "Aw you know, you two love birds seem to getting along just fine without us hanging around."

They both hastily split apart, both sides trying to deny that they had feelings for each other in the first place.

"Yeah, we should get going," Ash said as he watched the scene with varying degrees of amusement.

"Yeah, before we start meddlin' ahyuck," Goofy said with a smile.

"Are you turkeys trying to put me out of a job?" a voice called and they turned to see Phil approaching them.

"If you keep acing every challenge Champ, then who am I gonna train?" Phil asked.

"Aw you can't abandon me now Phil, I gotta be at the top of my game in case Hades shows up again," Herc said with a grin on his face.

"Hey! Are we true heroes yet?" Donald asked eagerly.

"Yeah! How 'bout it?" Sora asked eagerly.

"Lemme see now…you're not wise enough…not quite…seasoned enough…" Phil said as he looked at the pair intently.

"Okay, okay, we get the hint!" Sora said irritably while everyone else chuckled slightly.

"Look kid, it's not my call! If it was, you'd have no problem, I'd make you all heroes in a heartbeat!" Phil replied loudly.

"Really?" Sora asked in stunned disbelief.

"Say that again!" Donald said eagerly.

"On second thought, if those are your hero faces, you got a lot of work to do," he said as the pair quickly gave chase to him.

"Leave me alone!" Phil cried as the pair chased him.

"See that?" Meg said, pointing to a constellation.

"Well whaddaya know," Herc said, looking at it.

"Hey Sora, stop chasing Phil for a sec and check this out!" Ash shouted to the keyblade wielder as he stopped chasing after Phil and looked up and immediately smiled at what he saw: a constellation of himself and all his friends that were with him on his journey to find Riku.

"I guess this means that you are true heroes now," Herc said as they all smiled proudly at their newest accomplishment.

"I guess we'd better get going," Ash said as he led the group towards the Gummi Ship.

**What did you guys think of that? It took a lot longer than I thought it would but I guess that's what happens when you haven't written much in three weeks.**


	5. Argh! I'm a Pirate

**I'm sorry I haven't updated this story in weeks! I've been really busy and well I have done a lot of traveling lately. That and I got to finally try Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix+. Those data battles are just so much fun! Anyway, enough of my ranting, I'll just leave you to read and hopefully review.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokémon or Kingdom Hearts in anyway because if I did, this crossover would have existed a long time ago.**

Chapter 5:

Everyone was pleased with how they performed back at Olympus Coliseum and Kairi and Misty were pleased to discover their own variation of Ash and Sora's drive forms: The Command Styles.

Sora was sitting inside the gummi ship, staring out the window, while Ash and Goofy were flying to the next world. He was happy that he was finally a true hero after all the time they had spent training like crazy the last time they came to Olympus Coliseum.

"Hey Sora, where do you want to go? Port Royal or Atlantica?" Ash called from the pilot seat as Sora turned to look at them.

"Let's go to Atlantica, I'm sure someone here will really enjoy it," Sora said, his eyes flashing to Misty and Ash nodded, steering the ship towards the aforementioned world.

"Why would I enjoy Atlantica?" Misty asked Sora whom merely smiled vaguely and said that she would find out in due time.

"I'm just going to stay here," Ash and Pikachu mumbled to the rest of the gang who shrugged and Donald transported them to the aforementioned world. Ash couldn't help but feel slightly curious of what that world was like and consider that he might want to go there the next time the opportunity presented itself.

"Ash, why haven't you gone to Atlantica at all?" Pikachu asked, sitting on his best friend's lap while Ash scratched him behind the ear and Pikachu let out a sigh of content.

"I just need to clear my head and think for a little bit," Ash replied as he remembered what had happened at Hollow Bastion: seeing Xemnas and then he hit the ground, clearly unconscious.

**Dream Sequence:**

Some bald guy and a boy with a mask on his face were looking up at a heart-shaped moon that Ash couldn't make heads or tails of. He looked to see three people in armor and keyblades in tow fighting the masked guy or the bald dude.

"_Who are these people?" _Ash mused as the dream ended.

"ASH!" Pikachu shouted, shocking the Pokémon trainer with another Thunderbolt, bringing him back to the realm of consciousness.

"What'd you do that for?" Ash asked indignantly.

"You fainted on me!" Pikachu shouted as everyone popped back into the gummi ship.

"What's going on here?" Misty asked, looking from Ash to Pikachu and back again.

"Ash fainted," Pikachu replied as they all stared at Ash.

"I was tired! The battle with Hades took a lot out of me!" Ash retorted while everyone shrugged and Sora piloted the ship to Port Royal.

"How was Atlantica?" Ash asked Misty.

"Being underwater was fun, but I didn't like singing," Misty grumbled as Ash snickered and she glared at him.

"So what happened this time?" Ash asked Sora.

"Ariel wanted to meet some man from up above the sea and Sebastian tried to convince her to just stay underwater with a song that he wrote and she just didn't agree with him so a while later, we found a locket that belonged to that guy and we couldn't reach it with those rocks in the way and Magnet Magic just wasn't powerful enough to do the job," Sora explained, recounting what had happened in their most recent visit to the undersea world.

"So now we're going to Port Royal?" Pikachu asked and Sora nodded, turning back to the controls as he blasted another heartless ship.

**In Port Royal:**

A member of Organization XIII was examining the chest of cursed Aztec gold with great interest, thinking of all the plans that came to mind that could easily come into play.

**Back with Sora and Ash:**

A few minutes later, the group landed the ship in Port Royal without a hitch and quickly started looking around for the keyhole when they stumbled across Jack fighting some pirates. He noticed them and shouted, "Zola! Some assistance."

"That's SORA!" Sora snapped.

"Will ye leave a mate to perish?"

"Aye aye," he sighed as they summoned their weapons and started fighting the pirates. Needless to say that it was annoying but thankfully Ash and Sora's Flash Step and Round Break abilities managed to kill them off quickly but when they thought that they had beaten them all, more pop out of the water but Pikachu stopped that by using thunderbolt on the water, killing all the cursed pirates.

"What the hell happened here? Why were there pirates without any flesh?" Kairi demanded and everyone stared.

"What?" she asked and they just shook their heads, trying to get back to the topic and realized that they were allowed to swear in a PG-13 world.

"Weren't those cursed pirates?" Sora asked while Pikachu and Jack face palmed and both nodded.

"I thought we saw the last of that Aztec Gold," said Ash.

"I guess some scallywag's gotten a little greedy," Jack commented and everyone stared at him pointedly and he realized that they believed him to be taking the gold. "Ah I see, you don't trust me, do you?" Everyone nodded at this statement and Jack said, "Likely a wise choice, as I AM a pirate, mates."

"JACK! Sora! Ash!" a voice shouted and they all turned to see Elizabeth running towards them.

"Elizabeth," said Ash casually while Jack thought, _Some sticky business is afoot, I fear_ and he made to leave but Elizabeth stopped him.

"I need your help, the cursed pirates have returned. Will went to find out why so he went to Isla de Muerta to check on the Aztec treasure. I fear that something must have happened. You have to take me to him, " she explained while everyone processed the information that they had received.

"If you'll wanting him rescued, its best to do it alone, lass," Jack replied and everyone stared at him as though he was mad.

"Really Jack? Alone? Sail to the island and take on cursed pirates?" she asked.

"Well if anyone could…" said Jack, his voice trailing off.

"Are you sure he's in trouble?" Sora asked.

"No. Not certain," she said guiltily but hastily added, "But he's been gone far too long and I wanted to go with him but he insisted that I stayed behind. I can't just sit and wait! I've got to know if he's all right!"

"Lucky man…" said Jack.

"Please Jack. Take me to him," she said desperately.

"Hold on a moment, I see no profit in it for me," Jack said and Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy sweat-dropped.

"I will reward you, of course…you owe Will for when he saved your life, remember?" she asked him.

"Right, shall we?" Jack asked and everyone proceeded to board the ship, everyone but Kairi. Sora noticed this and gestured for Ash to get on bored as he looked at Kairi curiously, wondering what was wrong.

"Sora, I just realized that Muerta means Dead!" she shrieked and Sora stared at her for a pure ten seconds before shrugging and made to board the ship before Kairi smacked him in the back of the head.

"OW! What did you do that for?" Sora demanded

"Sora! Weren't you listening?" Kairi snapped and the boy blinked.

"Don't worry, if anything happens, I will protect you," he vowed, taking her hand and dragging her towards the Black Pearl.

"What was that about?" Ash asked Sora, gesturing towards a slightly nervous Kairi.

"She's just worried about fighting undead pirates," said Sora plainly while Ash nodded in understanding as Jack announced that they were heading to Isla de Muerta.

As they sailed, more cursed pirates ambushed them and Kairi, resolving to be braver than ever, sliced off half of the heads and beat the crap out of them.

"Captain," Sora called and Jack pointed to a treasure chest that had appeared out of nowhere and when Sora opened it, a huge burst of light that pulled all the pirates toward it and Sora and Jack took it in turns to attack the bunch that was caught. Jack then dropped a bomb into the chest and Sora sealed it shut before the explosion pushed them back and all the pirates were gone and the ambush failed while Ash and Misty killed off the last of the heartless.

A little while after the ambush, Goofy shouted, "Interceptor off the starboard bow!"

"What the hell does that mean?" Pikachu asked as Ash, Sora, Misty, Kairi, Donald and Jack ran over.

"WILL!" Elizabeth shouted, spotting his unconscious body leaning on the edge of the ship.

"I guess it was lucky that we found his ship," Misty commented as Jack stood in mournful silence with a hand on his chest, apparently honoring his memory.

"Stop that Jack! We've got to rescue him!" Elizabeth snapped as Sora and Ash took a long plank of wood that just happened to be there and placed so that the two ships were connected. They proceeded to carry Will to the Black Pearl's captain room where Elizabeth slapped him lightly on the cheek, pleading for him to wake up.

Will eventually regained consciousness and said, "Elizabeth."

"What happened?" she asked.

"The medallions…and…the stone chest—someone's taken them…next thing I knew, we were attacked but I couldn't see who it was—his face was shrouded…in a black hood," Will murmured.

"The Organization," Sora muttered and Ash, Donald, and Goofy nodded in agreement.

"We found a way out of the cave but the villain said a hoard of terrible creatures after us…I've never seen their likes before. I think I was the only who made it back to the ship," Will explained.

"Will," Elizabeth breathed.

"Elizabeth…I feel rather…" Will began but immediately passed out before he could get the words out.

_I wonder what it was that he felt? _Ash mused, watching the scene unfold.

"Our turn everyone," said Sora, everyone nodding in agreement as everyone made to leave the room to resume what they were doing before they found Will but Elizabeth called them back.

"You'd best go prepared. You have no idea what's out there!" she called to their retreating backs and the keybladers gave a thumbs-up in acknowledgement but before anything else could happen, Jack intervened saying, "Pardon me lads and lass, but your captain will have no monsters today. Thank ye, we're turning for home." He turned on his heel and strolled out of the room

"Just like that?" she asked, slightly incredulously.

"Just like that!" he reaffirmed.

Jack opened the doors and scowled before saying, "Don't remember invitin' you." Right on cue, a man in a black cloak walked out from the Corridor of Darkness.

"So it was the Organization, we'll handle this," said Sora, whipping out his keyblade with everyone else hastily following suit.

Nothing happened for a bit before a british voice spoke, "The darkness of men's hearts—drawn to these accursed medallions; and this heartless—a veritable maelstrom of avarice," he said and a giant heartless appeared on the deck, but the man went on saying, "I wonder, are they worthy to serve Organization XIII?"

"And you want an answer now?" Jack asked.

"Precisely," the man replied curtly before vanishing.

Everyone fell into combat with the Heartless and let loose with some air combos. Sora used Magnet Splash to draw it in closer to do more damage while Misty and Kairi attacked with some magic. Ash, Donald and Goofy simply drew its attention to themselves, the better to keep it distracted and after a few minutes of combat, the heartless fell and the team claimed victory.

"Oh boy!" Donald cheered, clearly pleased with what they had done.

"It's not over yet," Sora warned, turning back to face the member of Organization XIII.

He brought down his hood to reveal short blond hair, blue eyes, earrings on his ears and a goatee.

"Throw him overboard!" Jack declared boldly, his sword pointed at Luxord.

"Aye aye," Sora replied before Luxord shouted Parley.

" 'Scuse me?" Jack asked, frowning at what Luxord said.

"Barley?" Goofy said looking confused just like everyone else.

"It's a bit of a pirates' code, anyone who invokes 'Parley' must not be harmed 'til negotiations are complete," Jack explained

"This is no time for rules!" Sora shouted incredulously and everyone else nodded his or her heads in agreement.

"True, but as we are honorable pirates, we must always stick to the code," he said to Sora before turning to Luxord and saying, "Alright you, out with it!"

"I surrender the chest with my humblest apologies," said Luxord.

"A rather accommodating of you mate, and for that you want…?" Jack said uncertainly before Luxord replied, taking a few medallions, "Just a few souvenirs, for the memories." Luxord threw the medallions in the air and four nobodies snatched them and vanished.

"Oh no! We can't stop the curse unless we got all the medallions!" Goofy exclaimed as they vanished.

"Our friend's about to learn what it means when you cross a pirate," said Jack venomously.

"Oh?" Luxord challenged as they heard a loud THUD and the heartless that they had just defeated rose from the water and with a powerful gust of wind forced the eight of them onto the Interceptor. Ash noticed the cannons pointed at them as Luxord shouted, "FIRE!" and the cannons fired its balls one by one.

Will and Elizabeth burst out of the captain's room only to see cannon fire and the Interceptor falling apart and they didn't see Ash, Sora or any of their friends and realized that they might be drowning and heard Luxord's crazy laughter as the Black Pearl sailed away.

Ash remembered something similar happen to him in Altomare when he, Pikachu and Latias were trying to stop DMA from destroying the city and almost drown in the attempt but like that time, he along with all his friends survived.

Sora was the first to regain consciousness with Ash regaining his soon after. After a few minutes, everyone had regained consciousness and noticed that Jack was only a skeleton now, scaring Kairi and Misty sense to the point that Misty was about to pull out her mallet but Ash hastily grabbed it before she could started bashing Jack's head.

"You stole a medallion again!" Sora demanded incredulously.

"Were I only that fortunate," Jack said, stepping into the darkness and his skin returned.

"That's probably the creepiest thing I've seen," Misty said, looking disgusted as she remembered the prank Ash pulled on her in Lavender Town.

"Fortunate?" Donald asked, looking him over.

"How come you're all skeleton-y?" Goofy asked.

"Perhaps I got a touch o' somethin' from that monster that attacked us," Jack suggested as he began thinking about it. "Yet why's the skin resting right on you guys?" he asked and the group looked at each other, wondering how much to reveal.

" 'Cause we're not greedy," said Donald at once, not noticing everyone else's sniggers but became nervous when everyone stared at him and said, "What are you lookin' at?"

"We don't know," said Ash simply for none of them could make any more sense of the curse than Jack could.

Jack walked away to think while Goofy said, "Gwarsh, maybe the reason we're all okay is because we're not from this world!"

"Yeah, there must be different laws," said Donald, nodding in agreement.

"Yeah…we always seem to be just passing through, I wonder when we'll see home again?" said Sora and Kairi put a comforting arm around his shoulder reassuring him that they will get back once they find Riku. Misty doing the same for Ash, for Ash was feeling the same though not as intense since he's been traveling ever since he became a Pokémon trainer.

Sora suddenly burst out laughing and said, "Just kiddin' you. Lucky we didn't get cursed, huh?"

"You said it," Donald replied.

"Quit yammerin' mates! We've got to find ourselves a ship that'll float!" Jack said, his voice echoing on the hull of the once proud Interceptor. He then led the way out through the hole in the wall.

They ran, ignoring the cursed pirates, as they were not the main concern right now. As they kept running, Donald noticed and pointed out one of the nobodies that had one of the cursed medallions. Ash quickly defeated it and Jack picked it up and said, "Three more to go."

"How do you know that?" Misty asked curiously.

"A pirate must have a keen eye, or else he won't be sailin' free for very long, savvy?" Jack explained to the bewildered group.

The group heard a ship approaching and they saw the Black Pearl coming into view with Elizabeth shouting, "Ahoy Mateys!"

"A ridiculous imitation, and yet I'm flattered," muttered Jack and Sora assumed this because he was glad to have his ship back.

"Jack, what happened? This is horrible!" said Elizabeth apprehensively.

"But who's to blame for it, eh?" said Jack.

"Not Elizabeth," snapped Will.

"It's Organization XIII, they're one's behind all this," Ash promptly stated.

"I wonder where they went," Goofy mused to himself.

"The hooded man took the pirates and his creatures with him into some strange hole. We saw them leaving from the captain's stateroom," Will told Sora.

"Didn't occur to you to fight them, mate?" Jack asked, frowning slightly.

"I'm no fool, I knew that I was no match for them," Will replied tersely.

"That I believe," said Jack.

"Sora, Ash, I think we'll need your help once more," Will told the boys, who nodded to show that they were willing to help.

"First we're going to have to find the medallions and then put them back in the chest, otherwise the curse can't be broken and the creatures will remain invincible!" Will exclaimed.

"Maybe we'll find some of the nobodies in Isla de Muerta," Sora suggested as Jack nodded and sailed to the aforementioned island.

A few minutes later, they were attacked and they managed to defeat their ambushers with relative ease. When they disembarked, Sora immediately noticed that purple portal that he had seen in Beast's Castle and Olympus Coliseum.

Upon closer inspection, Ash saw what looked like four Kunai knives and he was holding his head in his hands as he had a flashback.

**Flashback:**

"_Broke his heart, more like smashed it really," said Larxene, answering Sora's question about what Namine did to Riku._

"_Smash…his heart?" Sora asked, aghast. "Then what's gonna…What's gonna happen to Riku?" Sora shouted._

_Larxene laughed that annoying laugh of hers and said, "You're so much fun to watch. If it's Riku you're worried about, then don't. Because Riku was never really here."_

"_What do you mean?" Sora asked sharply._

"_Do you really think I'm just going to say it? That would be too easy! Oh, what to do?" she said, feigning thought._

"_Quit the games!" Sora shouted, taking a run at the blond and Larxene kicked Sora, sending the young keyblade wielder flying across the room, landing on the ground_.

"_All right, have it your way, then, I know it will kill you to hear this but I think I can live with that. That thing lying there is just a puppet that Vexen created as an experiment. NO more than a toy. It's laughable really, it called YOU a fake when IT was the fake all along."_

"_Riku? A fake?" Sora asked, his voice cracking._

"_Fake in every possible way," said Larxene mockingly._

_The conversation went on until Larxene was about to attack Sora but Goofy saved him and Donald cured him and they eventually lunged into battle. He watched the younger Sora defeat the lighting lover and watched her fade into the darkness._

"_No! NO! I refuse to lose to such a bunch of losers! I think I'm…fading? But this isn't…the way…I won't ALLOW!" she shouted as she faded into the darkness._

**End of Flashback**

"Ash, are you okay?" Pikachu murmured to Ash who hastily nodded and noticed that everyone was staring at him.

"What?" he asked nervously.

"Ash Ketchum! I know you're hiding something from us!" Misty snapped grabbing the front of his vest and shaking him until she had finished venting.

"I'll tell you later," he replied and everyone shrugged and Sora led the way into the portal to see the same purple puff of smoke that transformed into Larxene.

She tried to shock them as many times as she could but Pikachu used his tail as a lightning rod and took the electricity in to combine so lightning into an Iron Tail that he slammed into her side and Ash drove into Purple Drive Form **(A/N: I'd like to think of it as Ash's version of Limit Form but with a different Form ability and different move set)** and used his Air Slide to dodge the other lightning bolts and get a powerful finisher in while Sora used reflect to block the stray bolts, also doing damage and countered with his own combo.

Larxene made clones of herself in hopes of confusing her foes into submission and started with a huge beam of electricity that she used and Sora used Dodge Roll to avoid it while Ash used Air Slide to avoid the electricity. Misty and Kairi merely used Reflect when the beam was about to hit them.

Five of her clones slammed against the invisible wall behind them. Sora guarded the next attack and used Guard Break to knock one of them into the air and grabbed it, spun it around and threw it into the other clone, fusing them back together. The group of seven put in a combined effort and resulted in their victory. For Ash, he learned Air Slide.

They left the portal that had then disappeared and proceeded to explore each room, finding one nobody in each room. Kairi killed the first one and recovered the Medallion while Misty defeated the second one and got the Medallion and Sora defeated the last one and got the last medallion.

"That's four medallions, we got 'em all," said Sora.

"But where's the chest?" asked Jack.

"If we find the hooded man, we'll find it," said Will, a determined look in his eyes.

"Prob'ly in Port Royal," said Ash thoughtfully.

"Why's that?" asked Elizabeth curiously.

"Organization XIII is after people's hearts, so they're gonna go where there's lotsa people," Ash explained and Sora nodded his agreement.

"They'll hurt the townsfolk?" asked Will apprehensively.

"No, they're bringin' 'em flowers, mate," said Jack sarcastically before adding angrily, "I don't know who these Organizers are but I will say that they're makin' we pirates look like proper gents!"

"Well, Jack…then…we have to help!" said Will.

"Then let go and haul to run free!" he shouted and everyone looked bewildered at this statement.

They sailed to the harbor and ran towards where the chest would be and were faced with the monster.

"Go, he's for me," Jack muttered as he ran and the heartless chased after him.

"Now, to break that curse," said Sora, dropping the medallions into the chest and the monster returned to its original colors.

"The curse! It's gone!" said Donald and Kairi in unison.

"Aww I understand, Jack musta been cursed by that monster, not from taking the gold," said Goofy.

"Oh I've no worries then," said Jack sarcastically.

"It's okay, Jack, we just have to defeat the monster, that's all," said Ash as the heartless swooped in and slammed its axe into the chest, gold flying everywhere.

"Get the gold!" Jack shouted as everyone assumed a battle stance and hastily began collecting the medallions.

Misty, Kairi, and Donald used Thundara on the heartless while Ash, Sora, and Goofy picked up the medallions that were dropped.

After returning all the gold to the chest, the curse was lifted, giving the team a chance to come in for some hits so they all used Air Combos to make the fight a bit easier for themselves.

The Heartless conjured a huge gale of wind, knocking them backwards and stealing a few medallions in the process. Ash noticed this and stole the Heartless' weapon and swinging it back at it and once more so it would unhand the gold and Sora and Jack hastily picked it up and put it in the bin but the curse wasn't lifted. Misty noticed one more close to falling into the water and she made a dive to catch, which she succeeded and she looked pleased with herself as she used dropped the medallion into the chest and started using Thundara and brought up her Thunderbolt command style. This one was particularly useful as Pikachu could power up her electric magic and deal much more damage.

"Donald!" Sora shouted and Donald nodded, saying, "I got it!" and hitting the heartless with small comet-like attacks that began to weaken and eventually did no damage because the heartless had stolen all of the medallions so everyone used Thundara and Pikachu used Thunderbolt, getting hundreds of medallions with ease and put them in the chest.

Sora finished the heartless with one last Magnet Splash and the Heartless vanished and Luxord colleted the heart saying, "Sora, Ash, bravo," before vanishing.

"Here Sora," said Kairi, giving sora a black crystal that sunk into his skin and he felt that he could attract objects from further away. He thought about this while Kairi gave Ash and Misty their crystals and they had the same effect on both of them.

Jack tapped Sora's shoulder and asked, "Just who was that chap?"

Sora and Ash launched into the explanation about Organization XIII and what they were planning and how the team intended to stop them.

Suddenly, Ash's keyblade started glowing and the chest did as well and so Ash pointed it at the chest and keyhole appeared and he sealed it shut with a beam of light that resembled a Pokeball.

"I guess this world is safe from the Heartless," said Ash.

"There's still one more thing that we have to do," said Jack, taking one side of the chest while Will took the other side.

"It's likely that we'll never see the likes of those Heartless again, they're ruining the market for us true pirates," said Jack.

"So that's why you went back to Port Royal, and here we thought you actually wanted to save everyone," said Elizabeth accusingly.

"A pirate always looks to profit, Miss Swann," said Jack.

"Too bad," said Sora, looking amused, "You had us going that you had turned over a new leaf."

"The question is, what's beyond the leaf, savvy?" said Jack.

"Oh yes, a reward, and what'll it be Jack?" asked Elizabeth.

"That lovely blade of Ash's," said Jack, pointing to Ash's keyblade.

"Okay, sure," said Ash, walking over and handing it over to him.

"Hold on, that was far too easy, what's the rub?" he asked, taking it from Ash. He was able to hold it for five seconds before it was back in Ash's hand.

"There, you see?" said Jack.

"Well, at least you got the Pearl, Jack," said Sora.

"That I do, but someday I'll gather a blood-thristy crew and come to take that blade, chance by then I'll have the way to wield it," said Jack while Kairi was trying not throw up over Jack's new found fondness over the keyblade. "And if I succeed, I'll ask you two to join me, that'd be reward enough."

"Done," said Elizabeth promptly and Will looked at her as though she were mad.

"Maybe one day, Jack will be able to use the keyblade after all," Goofy said to Donald.

"How come?" Donald asked curiously.

"He, Ash, and Sora are kinda alike, don't ya think?" he asked only receive an "Are not!" from all three of them at the same time. They all looked at each other and everyone burst out laughing at what had happened.

**I hope I have met your expectations with this chapter. I'm really sorry that the updates have been low and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Remember, the more you guys read and comment, the more likely that I'll start writing the next chapter.**


	6. Back to Agrabah

**Disclaimer: All of the characters do not belong to me whether they are Kingdom Hearts, Pokémon, or OCs. Those belong to Square, Game Freak, and Yue respectively. None of it belongs to me. No matter how much I'd like that to be the case but it'll never happen.**

Sora, Ash, and the rest of the gang were flying in the gummi ship. They were debating on which world to visit: Atlantica, Agrabah, or Halloween Town. Personally, Sora did not care where they went as long as he was doing something amazing or epically exciting.

"Will you guys just decide?" Donald asked as he and Sora watched the heated argument between Ash and Misty.

"I'm telling you, I want to go to Atlantica!" Misty snapped angrily.

"Who cares about that, Halloween Town is so much better!" Ash snapped back; equally angry.

"Ah, the good old days," Pikachu sighed as he hopped onto Kairi's shoulder and watched the intense argument unfold.

"Do those two fight all the time?" Sora asked and Pikachu nodded.

"They argued almost all the time when Ash first began his journey to become a Pokémon trainer," Pikachu replied, recounting several occasions where they had fought over where to go, what to do, and who to trust.

"I have an idea," said Sora suddenly and all eyes were on him and he pulled out a coin and said, "I'll flip a coin, heads: Atlantica, Tails: Halloween Town, and if it lands on the side, then we'll go to Agrabah."

"Okay," they both conceded and fell silent as Sora flipped the coin. It spun through the air faster and faster and it landed and spinning in all directions before rolling off and it remain on its side, causing seven sets of eyes to bug out in surprise.

"I guess we're going to Agrabah," said Kairi, looking completely stunned as Donald and Goofy nodded and steered the ship towards the desert city.

"How did that happen?" Ash and Misty asked dumbly as Sora shrugged but grinned at how cool it was.

Meanwhile,in the dungeon of Agrabah, the Peddler watched fearfully as large bouts of red smoke appeared. The lamp is lying next to him and the coffin is open. Iago flew in and watched as Jafar emerged from the smoke, laughing evilly.

"NOOOO!" Iago screamed in horror as the Peddler ran back to his shop to avoid getting in trouble.

The gang landed in the Peddler's shop and the first thing that happened was…Donald knocked over a vase and smashing it to bits.

"Wak!" and everyone face-palmed at this.

"You break it, you buy it! Oh hello there, friends!" said the merchants and they turned around and saw that he had a significant amount of gold behind him.

"Whoa, you made out like a bandit!" Sora commented, examining all the golden walls and anything of the same color.

"Please, what you see here is merely the result of all my hard work," said the merchant, gesturing to do the gold that graced the shop and Ash snorted; he didn't believe this merchant's story for a second.

"Gwarsh, they sure are nice," said Goofy looking around.

"And they're on sale, interested?" the Peddler asked and the girls' eyes lit up in glee but Sora replied in the negative before they could agree and Ash, Donald, and Goofy explained that they believed him to be a scam artist.

"Listen, have you see a guy in a black coat? Someone from Organization XIII?" Sora asked, approaching the merchant.

"Who? Me? Certainly not."

"Okay, we'll keep asking around, then."

Ash's eyes landed on a puff of smoke that had a picture of a shield on it and it was surrounded in ice crystals but before Ash could bring it up to Sora, Iago, Aladdin, and Abu burst into the shop.

"Sora, Ash, don't let him get away!" Aladdin shouted but before anyone could do anything, the peddler had vanished, leaving behind a very confused group in the dust.

"What the hell happened?" Pikachu asked.

"I can't believe it…the stupid peddler let Jafar out of the lamp," Aladdin replied and Sora, Donald, and Goofy's eyes widened in shock. Ash and Pikachu's did too but neither of them had actually met the sultan's former adviser.

"JAFAR!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy said in unison as recalled all the things that he did in their last adventure.

**Flashback:**

"_Give me the magic lamp, Aladdin!" Jafar shouted, pointing his snake staff at Aladdin and he summons the lamp to him._

"_And now, street rats, I bid you farewell," he said with a swish of his cloak and floated away._

**Scene Change:**

"_Crush those Urchins!" Jafar shouted, commanding some bandit heartless to do his bidding as he began laughing like a psychotic maniac._

**End of Flashback:**

"You guys better be careful," said Aladdin grimly.

"Huh?" said Ash, snapping out of his reverie.

"We all know that Jafar's going to try to take over Agrabah again but I'm sure that this time he wants revenge after what happened last time," said Aladdin.

"I guess he's a little sore about the whole getting-trapped-in-a-lamp, huh," Sora commented.

"Iago was there when Jafar was released, okay Iago spill it," said Aladdin and nine pairs of eyes fell on the once greedy bird.

"Hey! I already told you everything I know!" Iago retorted.

"This is your one chance, Iago. If I find out later that you've been lying to us, we're through. I'm never speaking to you again!"

"I can't take it! I know where Jafar is!" Iago declared boldly and everyone stared at him in surprise.

"Where?" Misty asked.

"Uh, er, I mean, that is, I, um... Ack! I really shouldn't..." Iago insisted, his voice trailing off.

"Iago!" said Aladdin, his voice rising in a threatening manner.

"Who are you two?" Iago asked Misty and Kairi, trying to put the attention off himself, at least for a little while.

"This is Misty," Ash introduced and she gave a small smile and a wave.

"And this is Kairi," Sora finished, introducing the islander.

"It's nice to meet you too, now Iago, where's Jafar!" Aladdin demanded.

Iago sighed in defeat and said, "He's in the desert ruins."

"Let's get the jump on him. Lead the way," said Sora and Iago sighed before Ash poked Sora in the shoulder and pointed out the shield and snowflakes hovering over it.

"Wait for us, we want to check something before we get going," Ash told them and they shrugged and left the shop before stepping into the portal.

**Flashback:**

_Who are you?" Sora demanded as a member of Organization XIII appeared._

"_I am Vexen. I have come to collect your debt, Sora," said Vexen._

"_A debt? Sora, do you owe somethin' to this guy?" Goofy quietly asked Sora._

"_Come on, Goofy, of course not," Sora replied with a frown, waving his hand to assert his point._

"_Oh, but you do. You owe me for reuniting you with your former friend."_

"_You don't mean…" Sora began but Vexen nodded in the affirmative._

"_Indeed, I do. I'm the one who brought Riku to you."_

"_Then...you're the one... You're the one who's been controlling him! What have you done with him?" Sora demanded, summoning his Keyblade and got into a stance, ready for any kind of combat that Vexen was gonna pull.  
_

"_I see no need to give you information about where Riku is. After all…" Vexen said, summoning a large blue shield._

"_Why trouble you in your final hour?" Vexen asked as they began to fight and Sora easily overpowered the chilly academic.  
_

"_As I expected, you weren't one to die very easily," said Vexen, sheathing his shield._

"_As if I'd ever lose to you!" Sora shouted._

"_I wouldn't be so sure. Did you even notice? I was delving deep into your memory as we fought. And here... Look what I found," said Vexen, holding up a card of a once unknown world)._

"_A card crafted from all the memories that are locked in the other side of your heart." He went on mysteriously and tossed the card to Sora before vanishing._

"_Wait!" Sora shouted as he chased after Vexen to see that he's gone. He then looks at the card._

Scene Change:

_Sora, Donald, and Goofy were in Twilight Town's mansion and Sora recounted the feeling of nostalgia that he had had while he was here and Vexen appeared once again._

_Vexen asked which was more real: Sora's feeling's for Namine or his feelings for the town and Sora replied that his feelings for Namine were more real because he's never been to this town before and the two have a shouting match._

_Vexen summons his shield told Sora that his existence was worth nothing, just like his Riku and Sora was overcome with anger at this point and immediately lunged into battle and finished the scientist._

_Axel suddenly appeared and told Vexen that he had to be eliminated so before Vexen could do much more, Axel killed him with a snap of his fingers and Vexen burst into flames before vanishing into the darkness._

End of Flashback:

Everyone was back in Twilight Town and Vexen appeared again with his shield at the ready so everyone summoned his or her respectively weapons and lunged into battle.

Sora found himself on top of a platform with the Organization's symbol on it so he knew it couldn't be good so he used Quick Run to get away and Ash smashed the shield to bits while Sora and Misty who was now in her Thunderbolt command style attacked mercilessly and Sora used Guard Break and followed with an Air Combo.

Kairi and Ash noticed that a black version of Sora had appeared and was rapidly moving across the field and was going after Pikachu.

Pikachu quickly used Iron Tail to smash it away and this gave Ash and Kairi an opportunity to attack and so they finished off Anti-Sora while Vexen froze Sora and Misty in ice, which Donald and Kairi melted with their Fire abilities.

Vexen chuckled before he began hovering across the field and launching multiple ice disks at them. They all jumped out of the way but again, that Organization platform kept stalking Sora but no one knew what it did until Vexen summoned Anti-Sora again and as Sora fought his own darkness come to life, Ash realized that they'd have to destroy the symbol in order to stop Anti-Sora from appearing repeatedly.

Ash relayed this to Sora and they both stood across from each other and pointed their Keyblades up and it the light flew up and came down as a powerful beam, smashing the symbol to bits but Vexen didn't seem to care as he hovered up and started moving much faster around the field before smashing large chunks of ice at everyone and then eventually knocking them into the air with a spiky pillar of ice but Sora used retaliating slash and followed with a few Horizontal Slashes that destroyed the shield and finished with an Aerial Finish.

Vexen's shield vanished before disappearing back into the portal that brought them there and vanished.

"Where did Anti me come from?" Sora asked, staring at the spot Vexen disappeared.

"I bet that symbol was collecting data about you and creating something to fight you," Ash suggested.

"What makes you say that?" Misty asked, eyebrows raised and Ash didn't feel like explaining so he shrugged but Misty was still suspicious but she let it go for now.

_Hey Rallen, what's with all these Absent Silhouttes appearing in the worlds? _Ash asked and Rallen was silent for a moment before responding by saying, _Ash, the reason they are here is because once a nobody is defeated, a little piece is left behind and in order for them to be fully defeated, these pieces must be destroyed as well_. Rallen explained and Ash nodded as he followed Sora and the others to the Palace Walls. They immediately noticed a giant windstorm at the desert ruins.

"What a disaster! We're just gona hafta turn back!" said Iago.

"There's gotta be a way," Aladdin muttered as they all began to think before they heard a voice cutting through the air.

"Aw, c'mon kid, that's an easy one!" Genie shouted as he flew through the air.

"Al' ol' buddy, ol' pal!" said Genie, swinging around Aladdin while the others watched in amusement.

"This is what having a genie for a best friend his all about! I mean, how can you leave me on the sidelines at a time like this!" said Genie as he vanished and reappeared as large as the palace walls and this took Kairi and the Pokémon trio by surprise.

"Live large! Wow 'em Al'!" said Genie as his eyes bugged out and teleported back to Aladdin but smaller.

"Give 'em the old razzmatazz! What do ya say, kid?" Genie asked.

"Hey, Genie!" Sora shouted, waving at the blue genie happily.

"Sora!" Genie responded before noticing a set of unfamiliar faces, "Who are you?"

"We haven't really met but I'm Ash, this Misty, and Pikachu," said Ash and he introduced Misty and Pikachu; the latter of which was sitting on his shoulder while this was going on.

"And this is Kairi," Sora finished as Kairi watched in awe as Genie teleported again.

"Wanna see a little something I call Sandstorm Sweep?" Genie asked.

"Uh-huh!" they all replied enthusiastically.

"Alakaza—uh…" Genie began but when he looked at the size of the sandstorm he said, "You know, one lousy sandstorm is just to easy." He pointed a finger at the storm and magic twirled around it and the sandstorm quickly dissipates but everyone else is still amazed and Genie vanishes.

"How about giving me a challenge next time, eh Al'?" Genie's voice echoed as they walked towards the Sandswept ruins. They notice that the ruins are in a big who in the ground.

"Now what do we do?" Aladdin asked, folding his arms and on cue, a magic carpet flies and points at itself.

"Nice timing Carpet," Sora grinned as he boarded and the others jumped in and tried to find a way to navigate to where they needed to go.

As the others began doing some exploring, Sora noticed Jafar's shadow appearing near the other side of the whole and quickly heads towards it. The shadow vanished in a puff of red and black smoke and Heartless appeared in its place. Sora managed to defeat these very quickly and the shadow reappeared under an archway.

Meanwhile, the others caught sight of Sora flying to a tower so they followed him and Pikachu pushed Misty and Kairi up the tower, Donald teleported himself and Goofy up to the top while Ash high jumped up and felt a powerful gust of wind force him up to the top where Sora was fighting more heartless so they all pitched in to help out.

Once that was done, they all examined the monument and saw that they needed to activate three switches and the monument showed where they were so the Keyblade bearers took off to find the switches and activate them.

Ash found and triggered the first one with Fira magic.

Misty and Kairi found the second switch and triggered it with Blizzara magic.

Sora found the last switched and triggered it with Thundara magic and the Keyblade bearers made it to the tower window where they all proceed to the Ruined Chamber and they quickly ran to where Jafar was supposedly hiding.

"The games up Jafar!" Sora shouted as they all readied their respective weapons and looked around, expecting him to pop out of a random portal like all the other bosses they've had to fight.

"Why isn't he coming out of some portal like all the other guys we've fought?" Pikachu asked as the others looked around for some sign.

"You sure this is?" Aladdin asked Iago who flew up to a stone.

"Iago?" Donald asked suspiciously.

"Ya gotta understand. It wasn't my idea! It was Jafar. He made me bring you here. You don't know him like I do! He can be VERY convincing! He said if I didn't cooperate, he was gonna—…" Iago's voice trailed off at this point.

"Where is he?" Aladdin asked.

"C'mon Al', you gotta forgive me," Iago pleaded.

"Where's Jafar!" Aladdin demanded, scaring Iago.

"Well...um, let's see...right about now, he's probably attacking the palace. I had no choice! His eyes, they got all creepy and WEIRD!" Iago explained but it turned into a useless rant.

"Whatever Iago, you're supposed to be our friend! But you've been playing both sides, just to make sure you save yourself," said Sora and Ash nodded in agreement while the girls made no comment.

"I knew you were still a bad guy," said Donald accusingly.

"I'm SORRY!" Iago wailed as he flew into a urn and triggered the switch for the tower to crumble and right on cue, carpet appears and urges them to get on.

"C'mon let's go!" Aladdin shouted as they flew out of the crumbling tower as fast as they could and carpet slumped to the ground in exhaustion.

"Get some rest Carpet, you've earned it," Aladdin told it as they headed back to the palace.

"C'mon! Let's get Jafar!" Iago shouted.

"And who asked you?" Sora asked while Kairi sighed.

"The palace is through there, hurry!" Aladdin shouted as they headed back to the palace. On the way, they found the peddler and began asking him questions.

"I guess you know everything now, eh," the Peddler told them slyly.

"You can't keep shady stuff hidden for long," Ash replied, folding his arms.

"So true. I had just snuck into the Palace to, er, borrow some treasure when I heard this...voice. It said: Release me, and I will give you an even greater reward. Who are you? I asked. The voice spoke again: The true Sultan of Agrabah, he said. Imprisoned by villains. Oh! Why did I believe such a tall, tall tale? Perhaps I was under Jafar's spell. Yes! That must be it!" The Peddler explained while everyone face-palmed at the Peddler's poor attempt at proving his innocence.

"And I'm sure the treasure had nothing to do with it, right?" Misty asked sarcastically, raising her eyebrows and the Peddler sweat-dropped.

"Maybe a bit, but Jafar never gave me a thing," the Peddler replied.

"So where did you get your treasure?" Kairi asked.

"From the man in the black coat, of course," the Peddler replied as everyone's but Aladdin, Abu, and Iago's eyes widened in shock.

"Organization XIII! I knew it!" Sora exclaimed.

"The treasure was a gift, to make sure that I would not tell anyone about Jafar's return. He said that he would destroy Jafar after turning him into a…Heartless so there was no need to upset Agrabah," the merchant explained while they sweat-dropped at the peddler's gullibility.

"And you bought that?" Ash asked.

"I am a merchant and a good one, at that. I will buy anything if the price is right. It would have been a successful transaction if I hadn't been seen…" the Peddler recalled as his voice trailed off and stared at Iago.

"Oh, you're so kind…" said Iago and everyone looks at him and he at least has the grace to look down in shame. After the exchange, they race to the Palace where Jafar has Jasmine in chains.

**Scene Change:**

"Just wait Jafar! You'll get exactly what's coming to you!" Jasmine said angrily as she struggled against her restraints.

"Indeed I will, Princess. All of Agrabah will belong to me, while you…" he paused while allowing himself a hearty laugh before continuing, "You, my queen, shall weep at my side for all eternity!" He laughed as Jasmine continued to struggle at her chains.

"Oh please," said Jafar disdainfully as he touches her chin and stares into her brown eyes before quietly sneering, "Right about now…your precious Aladdin is whispering your name, with his last breath."

Jasmine saw the group and gasped in relief that they were all right and Jafar turned around to see a group of eight (Pikachu sitting on Ash's shoulder and Abu is hiding in Al's vest) looking ready to fight.

"What was that you were saying Jafar?" Aladdin challenged and Jafar turned away from them looking disgusted and noticed Iago on Goofy's waist.

"You dare defy me you useless bird!" Jafar roared as his snake staff's eyes glow while threatening Iago while Goofy was covering them both with his shield and Jafar immediately switched targets to Aladdin and shot a beam of energy at the former thief.

"Al!" Iago shouted, flying in the way of the attack and took the hit before flying the ground, unmoving and looked like a stuff animal.

"Iago!" Goofy exclaimed as they all gathered around him.

"You'll all be joining him, VERY SOON!" Jafar roared as he glowed with a magical energy and red smoke billows from behind him. He lifts up his hands and enters the smoke where he turns into his genie from and grows to an enormous size before ripping off a tower from the palace and dropped on the group who quickly run out of the way with cries of panic fresh.

"Whoa!"

"Run!"

The carpet caught them and brought them to a safer place.

"Sora, you go fight Jafar and we'll help you," said Kairi and Sora nodded before hopping back on the carpet and flew off to face Jafar.

"All shall bend to my will! The world is mine to control!" Jafar screamed as he swung his arms and two pillars flew at Sora and he hastily made the carpet fly down and Sora started attacking his stomach while he heard battle cries and saw that everyone was using long ranged magic and Jafar's head and after a little bit of work, Sora stunned the red genie and joined the others on the merciless assault on the genie's head.

Sora quickly grabbed Jafar's tail and spun him around at high speed, making him feeling nauseous and Sora managed to get some more attacks in before he stunned Sora, making the Keyblade bearer unable to move until he eventually got his control back but only to get hit by two pillars.

Sora flew back to Jafar's stomach and attacked until Jafar was stunned and that thankfully didn't take very long since Ash had summoned Stitch to help them out and they were currently playing with a ukulele and slowing down the attacks enough for Sora to get a good combo in.

Jafar teleported Sora to a different dimension and Sora saw a large number of buildings flying at him so he urged the carpet to fly away and any that he couldn't dodge he used Guard to deflect them away and they were eventually teleported back to Agrabah and Jafar cast a weird spell that forced a large number of electrical fireballs to fly at him but Sora quickly flew past them and got back to Jafar's stomach and stunned for what he hoped would be the last time and flew up to his head and finished the former adviser with an Explosion finisher.

"No…how can I be defeated AGAIN, by a pack of filthy STREET RATS!" Jafar screamed.

"Don't mess with street rats," Sora replied as he flew away and Jafar exploded in a burst of magic and his lamp melts away and right on cue, Genie appeared.

"You went mano a mano with Jafar and you didn't invite me Al?" Genie asked, looking offended.

"Sorry Genie, things happened kinda fast," said Aladdin apologetically as Genie sighed in disappointment before turning around and adding, "And I had some new moves to show off too…"

"But Genie, we still need your help," said Donald and Goofy in unison.

"Who's gonna fix Agrabah?" Ash and Sora asked in unison.

"Oh yeah!" Genie cheered before adding, "One super-duper spruced-up Agrabah comin' right up! You won't even recognize the place when I'm through with it!" Genie told them enthusiastically.

"Just like it was please," said Aladdin.

"Really?" Genie asked, slowly deflating, "Same old, same old?" and Sora, Ash, and Aladdin nodded.

"All right," Genie sighed before saying, "Oh yeah!" enthusiastically and magic flew around everywhere and restored the buildings of Agrabah to their original states.

"Et voila! Next time let me put in a few swimming pools, 'kay?" Genie's voice echoed as they stared at the repaired Agrabah.

**Scene Change:**

"I guess Agrabah's all right now," said Ash as Aladdin stretched.

"Yeah, thanks guys," said Aladdin.

"Hey, you behave yourself, got it?" Sora told Iago firmly.

"I most definitely got it! No more lookin' out for number one. I'm reformed! I wanna be a good friend, like Genie, but I can't do anything to help you. What kind of a friend is that?" Iago asked, looking ashamed.

"Oh no, it's not like that Iago. Friends don't have to stuff. As long as you have fun hanging out together, that's all that matters," Sora explained as everyone else nodded in agreement.

"So what do you guys do for fun?" Aladdin asked.

"We do this!" Donald replied, making a funny face with Goofy.

"Uh…that's not quite what I meant," Aladdin said slowly.

"Well, anyway…" said Sora, in a relaxed pose.

"Ow, my beak…" said Iago.

"Gwarsh Iago, I hope ya didn't hurt yourself," said Goofy.

"Well…at least I can still fly," said Iago as he began flying and Goofy walked beneath Iago so he could catch him if he falls but doesn't watch where he was going.

"Goofy, look out!" Ash shouted but he crashed into a market stand.

"Ohh! Was that my cue? Am I on? C'mon Al, lemme build a freeway or something!" Genie's voice echoed.

"Everything's fine. Don't panic!" Aladdin cried as they saw magic flying around.

"Genie!"

"But I can't hold it any longer!" Genie cried as he spun around in the air.

"Oh, that's good!" Genie laughed and then said, "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Ash, Pikachu! You guys are too much! If you're ever in the mood for some more cosmic razzle dazzle, gimme a shout, okay!" Genie shouted.

"You got it!" Pikachu shouted.

"You've done it again, Sora and Ash. Don't forget about us, okay?" Aladdin said.

"Don't worry, we won't," said Ash and Sora in unison.

"And Sora…about that friend of yours, the one you're looking for…you'll find him. Trust me," said Aladdin as he places his hands on Sora's shoulders as magic falls everywhere.

"We'll all help you find him," said Ash determinedly.

"Thanks guys," said Sora as they bid farewell to Aladdin and Jasmine and went back to the gummi ship.

"Hey, Sora?" Ash asked as they flew away from Agrabah.

"Yeah?" Sora replied, looking to face the Pokémon trainer.

"Once you find Riku, what will you do then?" Ash asked, sitting next to them.

"We'll probably head back to Destiny Islands," said Sora, turning his gaze out the window once more. "Why do you ask?"

"I just have this feeling that we're getting closer to defeating Organization XIII and when that's done, what happens after that?" Ash asked, looking back out the window.

"We've still got a lot to do so we'd better figure out, which world we should visit next before Misty goes berserk," Sora replied and went back to the controls with Ash following suit.

**Meanwhile:**

"They're getting closer than ever, they might just win with Rallen and Roxas on their side," Luna mused as she watched their progress in a looking glass.


	7. The True Meaning of Christmas

**Sorry this took so long. Life is just being stupid and finally caught up to me and everything spiraled out of control from there. I finally have this chapter down. Oh and just so you know, all the absent silhouettes from KH2FM+ so don't expect Ash to have anymore of those visions until he meets live Organization XIII members. Now that my usual rambling is done, on with the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, or any of the OCs that are being used here but you guys should know that by now…**

In a gummi ship far, far, away, a group of—you know what? Forget this, Sora and Ash's group were in a gummi ship trying to decide where to go.

After their success in Agrabah, the group was still at a loss at where to go: Atlantica or Halloween Town. They knew that singing and dancing was fun as is swimming and hanging out with Ariel and the Atlantica gang was awesome but on the other hand, Halloween was just a few days away so you guys can imagine the scene that's about to unfold.

"Halloween Town!"

"Atlantica!"

"Halloween Town!"

"Atlantica!"

"Halloween Town!"

"Atlantica!"

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kairi and Pikachu watched the argument between the two Pokémon trainers half amused and half irritated. They were sick of just sitting on a gummi ship when they knew that there was work to be done and worlds that had to be protected, plus they needed to find Riku and arguing about the next world wasn't going to get the job done any faster.

"Okay! How about we flip a coin again!" Sora shouted, silencing the two Pokémon trainers who turned to stare at him.

"What if lands on the side, Sora?" Misty asked the brunette while everyone else sweat-dropped.

"Well if that happens, which I doubt it will, then I'll flip it again," said Sora, pulling a coin from his pocket.

"Call it," said Sora.

"Heads!" Ash shouted confidently.

"Tails!" Misty cried.

Sora flipped the coin and it landed…ON ITS SIDE!

When everyone saw this, they face-palmed and Sora tried again, and again, and again but every time he flipped, the coin refused to give heads or tails; it would just stay on its side and continue rolling until someone picked it up.

"Okay then, since flipping a coin is clearly not going to work, we'll just have to vote," said Kairi, shrugging slightly as everyone agreed and Sora pocketed the seemingly magical coin while mumbling something to himself.

"Who wants to go to Halloween Town?" Kairi asked as Sora, Ash, Pikachu and Goofy raised their hands.

"I guess we're going to Halloween Town, sorry Mist," said Ash cheekily but Misty bashed him painfully with her hammer while Pikachu, Donald, and Goofy sweat-dropped while Sora piloted the ship towards Halloween Town.

**In Halloween Town:**

In his lab, Dr. Finkelstein was still working on his latest creation. He pulled the switch and the lab table erupted with electricity. It swirled around inside his robot, but the machine just sat there.

The doctor spun around in his wheelchair and said, "There's nothing wrong with my design—it's flawless! There must be something wrong with the parts those imbeciles brought me. I need to find better assistants," said Dr. Finkelstein.

He rolled over to the desk, where the familiar heart-shaped container was located. Unknown to him, the experiment's head turned to look at him. The doctor thought he heard something and turned around in his wheelchair…only for something to attack him.

**With Ash, Sora, and friends:**

Everyone used their magic to turn back into their Halloween costumes: Sora and Kairi were wearing Gothic of their traveling clothes along with fake vampire teeth, and a flat pumpkin head covering the side of their heads.

Donald and Goofy were a mummy and Frankenstein respectively while Pikachu was a cute little ghost once more and Ash and Misty were werewolves, wearing ripped version of their traveling clothes but Ash's fur was raven while Misty's was a red-orange color.

"Wow," said Kairi and Misty in awe and in slight fear as they looked around, feeling the scare in the air.

"C'mon, let's go meet up with Jack," said Sora as they all ran into town but found that there was nothing there so Ash and Sora gave Misty and Kairi a brief tour before leading them to the woods where they saw Jack Skellington, still in his Santa Claus outfit, picking up Christmas presents that were lying around.

"Perfect timing gentlemen," said Jack cheerfully, obviously oblivious to the fact that there were two girls in their midst before he added, "Lend me a hand, won't you?"

They all went to help him pick up the presents that were just lying around the woods before Jack told them that the presents belonged to Sandy Claws and he thought that he better return them.

"You just _happened _to find them?" Sora asked suspicious as he folded his arms, clearly not believing the ruler of Halloween.

"Of course Sora, I'm done with Christmas fantasies, you know that, and who are you?" said Jack, turning his attention to the newcomers.

"I'm Misty," said Misty, smiling as they shook hands.

"I'm Kairi," Kairi answered as they also shook hands.

"Misty, Kairi, it's wonderful to meet you," said Jack but Sora cut him off, and getting back to their previous topic while eying his costume curiously, "But you decided to hold on to the suit."

"What, this? It's just a costume and Sally worked so very hard making it! Come on! We've got work to do!" Jack called as he waved from the door to Christmas Town.

Everyone walked through the door and headed towards the workshop but Misty and Kairi noticed the differences: She and Sora were wearing a Gothic version of Santa and Mrs. Claus outfits, though they were both short-sleeved and their hats covered the side of their face. Goofy was a reindeer complete with antlers while Donald was a snowman complete with scarf. Pikachu was an elf while Ash and Misty were angels with white robes with a golden sash, gold bracelets and anklets along with Halos floating on their heads.

"Is this why you wanted to come to Halloween Town, Ash?" Misty asked as she noticed Ash's eyes light up when he saw the town.

"Yeah, this place is completely awesome! We got to meet Santa Claus the last time we were here and it was amazing!" Ash replied and Misty's excitement started to climb. Mature as she is though, she couldn't help but be excited at the prospect of meeting the _REAL _Santa Claus. She's seen those fake ones at malls but she knew that this would be the real deal.

"C'mon and you and Kairi will get to meet him," said Sora as they all took the presents and walked towards the workshop without any heartless coming and attacking them.

"That's a first," said Pikachu as they strolled into the workshop and Kairi and Misty got their first glimpse of the real deal Santa Claus.

"Whoa," the girls breathed as they saw him and all the boys greeted him, save for the girls for they could still not believe their eyes.

"Is this…for real?" Misty asked, looking stunned.

"As real as your friends are to you," said Santa, smiling slightly.

"It's an honor to meet you, sir," said Kairi as she and Misty introduced themselves before they got back to the reason that they were there in the first place.

"By the way, Santa, we found these presents in Halloween Town," said Pikachu as everyone put the presents on the table while Santa sorted through all of them, checking to make sure that they were still in good condition.

"You'll be needing them for Christmas, right Sandy?" Jack asked, putting down his bundle while Kairi sweat-dropped while at the same time thinking: _Sandy?_

"Of course, but these were just a few of the Christmas presents that were stolen," replied Santa and everyone's eyes bugged out in shock before shouting, "Stolen?"

Everyone turned to look at Jack with slightly suspicion on his or her faces and Jack responded by saying, "You surely don't think that it was ME, do you Sandy?"

"Still wearing the outfit, I see," Santa retorted while Jack boldly answered, "I just thought I'd dress for the occasion but if you don't believe me, I guess we'll have to figure out who really did it!"

Santa sighed before saying, "Alright I'll leave it to you."

"We'd best be off!" Jack declared as the group turned to leave but Sora hung back to ask something.

"Just wondering, but where's Mrs. Claus?" Sora asked as his eyes darted to Kairi's outfit and back to Santa.

"Well…" he motioned the Keyblade bearer to come closer. When Sora did, Santa whispered to him, "There are a lot of Santa Clauses scattered all over the universe. Some have a Mrs. Claus, others don't, some have reindeer, others use different animals, a few are even muscular, here, let me show you," he pulled out a magazine of all the different Santa Clauses and there it was in black and white: Muscular Santa.

"I'm the Santa assigned for the Christmas Town linked to Halloween Town, which is also linked to Valentines Town, St. Patrick's Town, Easter Town, Thanksgiving Town, Independence Day Town, and every other known holiday town you can think of," Santa explained.

"Okay then…" Sora replied, his voice feebly trailing off.

"It's true. Don't tell the others," Santa told him. Sora nodded and turned to the door when everyone heard a crash from the toy factory. The eight of them ran to the second floor Wrapping Room to see Lock, Shock, and Barrel amongst the toys, throwing them around like they were useless.

"No!" Shock shouted as Lock threw away yet another toy before Barrel pulled out another toy and got the same response. They kept at this, clearly not noticing the group that was watching them. Some of them they'd simply deem as stupid or really boring and they kept at this until Pikachu set a small shock at them, causing them to turn their attention to the Keyblade bearers and their friends who snickering at Pikachu's prank on the pranksters.

"So YOU three took them!" said Ash accusingly while the three miscreants stared at him innocently.

"Took what?" Shock asked innocently.

"You stole those presents! Didn't you!" Misty shouted while Lock, Shock, and Barrel exchanged a glance and said, "It wasn't us!"

"But…it sounds like a lot of fun!" Barrel cheered as the three started to: RUN FOR IT!

"Not so fast," said Sora as they readied their weapons and went into combat, which was basically just Pikachu shocking into unconscious with Ash and Donald pitching in with a Thundara attack every now while Goofy just helped out all around and then while Sora, Misty, and Kairi would fling boxes at the now unconscious miscreants.

Once the trio had regained consciousness and was tied up, Ash demanded where they put those presents while the trio insisted that they didn't have any of them and this took everyone by surprise.

"So why are you here?" Ash asked, eying them with the utmost suspicion and they answered by saying that they were looking for parts for experiment.

"Experiment," said everyone in unison before Lock, Shock, and Barrel explained that Dr. Finkelstein was going to make them a friend that they could boss around before Ash retorted that friendship didn't work that way, that's more of a master to servant relationship.

"It's true that the doctor has been working on SOMETHING lately…" Jack mused to himself while everyone kept his or her attention on Lock, Shock, and Barrel.

"Besides, Christmas presents are booooring," Lock commented before adding, "Nothing scary or gross so what's the point of them?"

"Yeah!" Barrel agreed before adding, "There's nothing fun here, let's head back Halloween Town!" At this he pulled out a small grappler gun and the three of them escaped through a broken window.

"Hey, that's not cool, don't steal Batman's tricks!" Pikachu shouted as the miscreants escaped back to Halloween Town while no one commented for they were used to his rants about seemingly random movies before heading back to Santa's workshop.

"So were those pranksters responsible for taking the presents?" Santa asked.

"It doesn't look like it," Kairi responded before Sally burst into the room and everyone turned to look at her.

"Oh thank goodness, you're all here!" she hastily said while Misty and Kairi briefly introduced themselves.

"There are Heartless back in the Halloween Town Square. I just thought you might like to know," said Sally breathlessly.

"That's our cue."

"Back to Halloween Town."

The group made to leave but Jack reminded them about the present thief and Sally added that she saw the Heartless playing with some of the presents when she saw them last. Jack jumped up in surprise and declared that they had found the thief.

They headed to Halloween Town as quickly as they could and saw that the heartless were attacking the mayor who was trying to force them to leave but with no success. Then again, would the Heartless really leave the town just because the Mayor told them to? No, of course not so everyone had their weapons at the ready and lunged into combat.

It was a Heartless slaughter fest and they were done in less than a minute.

"NEW RECORD!" Ash and Sora happily cheered while everyone else sweat-dropped while they picked up the presents. Just then, Jack saw an open present lying on the ground; although he stepped on the doll but picked up the box.

"What a shame! And it was such a nice present too!" said Jack sadly.

"Uh, Jack? The box was only intended to keep the doll that you're stepping on from taking any damage," said Ash but his words fell on deaf ears. They proceeded to Dr. Finkelstein's lab but were saved the opportunity of going inside for the doctor burst into the square shouting about his experiment being stolen.

As he then went inside, the group all followed. The lab was a big mess, and everyone noticed that the table had broken straps. Apparently, something was tied up there and it broke free from its restraints.

"I was just sitting here brainstorming, when all of a sudden I was attacked!" the doctor explained. "I collapsed! And when I awoke, my experiment was gone!" he exclaimed while Ash and the group began to think.

"Don't worry, Doc—we know who took it," said Pikachu confidently

"Who stole it?" The doctor asked sharply.

"The Heartless," Sora answered simply while Donald and Goofy nodded in return but the Doctor clearly thought otherwise.

"What, those wretched things? Preposterous! This was nothing like a Heartless," Dr. Finkelstein stated firmly while Sora and Ash exchanged a look of curiosity before asking what he meant but he said he didn't remember.

"Not the Heartless, huh?" said Sora thoughtfully.

"Who else could it be?" Donald asked and everyone began to think.

"Maybe the experiment just got up and left all on its own," said Ash quietly so that no one could hear him.

"That could be a possibility," Pikachu replied, just as quietly, taking Ash by surprise but didn't say anything about it.

"Say, I have an idea. The thief must like Christmas presents. So… We place irresistible gifts about to draw him into a trap," Jack suggested.

"And this miscreant is the same one who stole my experiment?" the doctor asked and Jack nodded in the affirmative.

"How will we know for sure?" Misty asked, frowning slightly.

"Well, now, that's easy! We'll scare a confession right out of him!" answered Jack.

"Gwarsh…" said Goofy.

"What do you say we go with Jack's plan…just for now?" Sora suggested and the rest of the group nodded before Jack said, "Let's get to Sandy's house fast! We've got to make some Christmas presents quickly!"

"On the double!" Everyone chanted as they headed back to Christmas Town.

After a few Heartless encounters, the group made their way back to Santa's House where Santa asked if they had found the presents yet.

"Almost, Santa!" replied Kairi.

"We're going to reel in the thief with Christmas presents as bait," Ash explained to the man in the red.

"Would you mind if we used your factory to create a few presents?" requested Jack hopefully.

"Presents as bait?" Santa asked uncertainly before adding, "Goodness…I don't like the sound of that."

"Well, we could just use the boxes. No need for a toy inside," Misty suggested but Jack shook his head, insisting that if they were going to make presents, they should put a toy inside it.

"Oh, all right. Just this once, I suppose. It's for a good cause… All right, use the second floor. And put some heart in it," said Santa and everyone nodded before heading to the aforementioned room

"Thank you, Santa," I replied as we all ascended the stairs in the Toy Factory to the Wrapping Room. There, Sora, Ash, and the gang met some elves and one of them approached them.

"You're going to make presents, right? Please follow me," he said as he led them past rows of machines where elves were at work at a conveyor belt. Once they reached an empty machine, he said they could use this.

"Let's make some gifts!" Sora cheered merrily.

"Yeah!" everyone else cheered along with him.

The job turned out to be more fun than they expected. Ash got first shot and his aim was so bad that Pikachu knocked him out of the way and started making presents, much better than Ash did. Sora soon took Pikachu's place and made his presents with Kairi and Misty following suit alongside Donald and Goofy before Ash got a second chance. His aim was much better this time around and made some really cool presents.

"Finally! All done!" Donald said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Not quite," corrected Jack while everyone eyed him curiously.

"There's more," Goofy asked.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of the rest," said Jack as he left the workshop and the rest of the group waited with Santa.

"Did you finish making the presents?" he asked as they appeared while Santa served some milk and cookies.

"Yeah, we're just waiting for Jack," said Sora.

"So where do you suggest we should put them?" Misty asked Santa.

"I know a good spot, whenever you're ready, just say the word," said Santa as Jack walked through the door.

"I'm back."

"Are you all set and ready to go?" Santa asked and everyone nodded in the affirmative so Santa led the group out to Candy Cane Lane. Santa gestured to a keyhole and Misty unlocked it with her Keyblade before Santa spoke, "Welcome to Christmas Tree Plaza, it should work well for your plan. Now Jack, tell me, what IS your plan?"

"I've got it all figured out!" said Jack enthusiastically.

"You do…"

"Of course, and I have a wonderful idea, if we catch the thief for you, I'd be honored to—," said Jack but Sora covered Jack's mouth and saying, "And on that note, we'll be going."

"What are you doing? Let me go!" said Jack in protest while everyone just looked amused or slightly annoyed by his antics before they set the trap for the thief before Jack told them to hop into the biggest box.

"Stop kicking," Donald snapped.

"It's not me Donald," said Goofy.

"Sorry, that was me," apologized Ash.

"Patience friends," said Jack and everyone felt their patience wear thin.

"I said cut it out!" Donald snapped.

"How come we have to be the bait?" Sora asked.

"Good plan, eh?" said Jack proudly.

Suddenly, a creature approached and began picking up the presents one by one and they gradually grew in size and when the team guessed the thief was close enough, the burst out of the box and Sora shouted, "GOTCHA!"

They were confused to see the experiment that Dr. Finkelstein told them about was telling them about so they readied their weapons and lunged into battle.

Sora used High Jump and Aerial Dodge to attack with an Air Combo while Ash, Misty, and Kairi dodged the attack and followed up until the experiment separated into three parts and Ash used Guard to block the oncoming head and hopped onto the neck and sprung back at the head, causing it to fuse together.

Kairi unlocked a new Command Style: Light of the Heart and she moved much faster and her combos were more powerful than before and smashing at her foe while Misty used her newly Aqua Wave Command Style and attacked with High Pressure water guns.

Ash and Pikachu created a Thunder limit and started using it. Ash launched Pikachu into the air and the mouse used a flurry of electric attacks and Ash slashed with electricity enveloped in his Keyblade and they finished the limit with both of them releasing a hundred thousand volts of energy.

"We did it! The mystery is solved!" said Jack happily.

"Did you catch the thief?" Santa asked, walking over to the group.

"Naturally," said Jack proudly.

"I just don't understand why the doctor's experiment would go around stealing Christmas presents," Ash wondered aloud.

Meanwhile, Santa walked up to the Experiment and said, "The doctor's made a moving puppet? I see… He is always tinkering with things. Now listen, Jack. I'd like to thank you, and while delivering presents is something only I can do, I can give you an idea of what it's like."

"Are you serious, Santa?" Ash asked, slightly incredulously.

Santa nodded and Jack eagerly leapt into the sleigh before having it take off.

"Yes, all that poor puppet wanted was a heart," Santa answered as Jack rode off in the sleigh.

"Ho! Ho! Ho!" he chanted happily.

As the rest headed for Halloween Town, Santa turned to Ash and said, "Ash, I would appreciate it if you take this Delibird with you."

"Really, Santa?" Ash asked incredulously as Santa nodded before he held the Pokeball out to the Pokémon trainer.

"Yes, Delibird will much happier with you than he'd ever be with me," said Santa as Ash slowly took the Pokémon from Santa.

Ash put the Pokeball in his pocket before crossing the portal and caught up with the others.

**At Halloween Town Square…**

Sora and the others were with Dr. Finkelstein and they told him about his experiment.

"Interesting! So the puppet wasn't stolen after all! It ran away on its own! In other words, my experiment was an overwhelming success!" said Dr. Finkelstein while Ash grinned in pleasure. He was right!

"Santa Claus thought that maybe it left because it was trying to find a heart," Sora told him.

"That's quite possible. Unlike my Sally, it wasn't equipped with a heart," the doctor agreed as he left for his house.

"But if it wanted a heart, why was it going around stealing all those Christmas presents?" Kairi wondered.

"Maybe because…presents are a way to give your heart to someone special," Sally answered as she came over.

"Hmm…when you put it that way, I feel sort of bad for it," Misty sighed gloomily.

Just then, they heard the sound of ringing bells and Jack dropped out of the sky. The group then saw Santa in his sleigh flying up near the moon.

"Happy Halloween!" he said as it started to snow.

"What a nice present," said Sally, looking up at the sky.

"I don't understand," Jack wondered. "There's no box! No ribbon tied in a bow!"

"Jack, as I stated before, the present is the contents of the box, not the box itself," Ash repeated.

"But what really matters is—," Donald began.

"—The act of giving the gift," Sally completed. "To wish deep in your heart to make someone else happy."

"Right…of course!" Jack said, "Thank you, Sally, you're absolutely right. Wait! What's this? I feel so strange…so very happy!"

"Jack that must be Sally's present!" Goofy answered.

"Really? This wonderful feeling?" Jack assented as he took Sally's hand in his. "Oh, Sally! You've given me the nicest present in the world! And I've nothing to give you in return. What would you like? Just name it. Absolutely anything," said Jack eagerly.

"The nicest present I could ever ask for, Jack, is just to be with you," said Sally, a little shyly.

Everyone felt a little strange, especially Sora.

"You don't even have to ask for that," said Jack as they began to dance.

"I never gave her a real present after all," Sora muttered so that only Donald, Goofy, Ash, and Pikachu could hear.

"Who?" Pikachu asked, smirking slightly.

"Kairi, of course," Donald answered

"Aw, I bet she'd like most anything you gave her," Goofy told Sora.

"I know. That's what makes it so hard to decide," Sora replied.

"It's not the gift, it's what's in your heart!" Donald reminded him.

"My heart…" Sora murmured, putting his hand over his heart.

"I think Kairi's like Sally," Goofy whispered to Ash.

"How?"

"Well, as long as she can be with Sora, what else does she need?" Goofy asked and Ash nodded in agreement.

As they watched Sally and Jack dance, they suddenly changed to Sora and Kairi and they were dancing as well and Sora blushed and laughed nervously.

"We better head back to the Gummi Ship," Ash reminded Sora who nodded and they left for the ship.

**This ends Chapter 7. Like I said before, I'm sorry that I haven't updated so long but since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought that this would be an appropriate time to update this story. That and my mind's been nagging me about it for days.**


	8. Simba's Pride

**I'm back. I got Birth By Sleep a few weeks ago and have been doing the Terra, Ventus, and Aqua stories but I've been having trouble on Mysterious Figure. Hopefully, I'll be able to update faster with winter break around the corner. Oh and if anyone has any advice on how to make the fight easier, TELL ME!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, or any of the OCs of this story…**

Luna and Fred were getting bored of watching Ash and Sora's progress through a looking glass and decided to watch them herself and immediately conjured a portal of darkness. But first, she thought slyly as she stepped through the portal into the Organization's meeting room where she was pleased to see that no one was there. She planted a detonator on Saix's seat just to make him made and hopeful get him to go berserk before vanishing.

She laughed so hard that she was practically sobbing after watching what had happened: Saix's seat gave a loud boom and he and Xigbar started fighting and Luxord eventually stepped in and trapped them in cards until they calmed down.

Misty had clearly not given up on going to Atlantica and so everyone, save for Ash, who was fast asleep, left the gummi ship for more aquatic fun and also to keep her from asking them every time they plan which world they should go to next.

Meanwhile, Ash was thinking about Organization XIII and the new Delibird that he caught while trying to figure out what would they gain from getting Kingdom Hearts.

"What did they mean when they said they would exist fully and completely?" Ash murmured and tried to think but quickly gave up. He just didn't understand it that much and decided to leave it alone until he understood more.

His attention then turned to the Delibird that he had gotten in Christmas Town as he pulled out the container that held the ice-type. Ash threw the capsule into the air and the Delibird popped and striking a pose at his new trainer, causing Ash to chortle.

"Hi Delibird, I'm Ash," said Ash, offering out his hand, which the ice-type grabbed enthusiastically before handing him a present. Ash had prior experience with presents and hoped that this one didn't blow up. He didn't get his wish. It exploded, leaving a slight burned Ash looking stunned before recalling Delibird. At that moment, the rest of the gang entered the ship looking exhausted but pleased with themselves.

"Hey guys," Ash grinned.

"Hey, Ash," everyone responded, not noticing the charred parts of his skin as the others assumed their regular positions aboard the gummi ship.

"What did you guys do in Atlantica this time?" he asked and they had recounted everything that had happened. Ariel had into a human but at the cost of losing her singing voice. They also admitted to having fought Ursala in hopes of breaking the contract, which they managed thanks to Ariel's true love. They also had one last musical to celebrate the union of land and sea and obtained a Blizzard element. As Ash felt the crystal sink into him the final sentiment reminded Ash of his Hoenn journey where he, Max, Brock, and May had to stop Team Magma and Team Aqua from gaining control of the ancient Pokémon: Groudon and Kyogre.

"What world are we going to go to next?" Misty asked curiously.

"Pridelands!" Ash sang while the rest of the group shrugged and Sora piloted the way to the aforementioned world while thinking how much Simba has done ever since their last visit to the world and everything they had done then.

"Are you two ready for a change in appearance?" Ash and Sora asked Misty and Kairi respectively.

"I suppose, but why?"

"Just trust us," Ash answered as they departed from the ship in a flash of light.

When the group landed, the first thing that they noticed were Kairi's and Misty's new appearances: they were no longer wearing any clothes and this caused hilarity to ensue but the boys turned away in hopes for Misty and Kairi to console each other about their new appearances. Misty made a mental note to smash the boys with her mallet at the first opportunity as she checked herself out while Kairi was doing the same.

Kairi was a magenta lioness cub with white at the underbelly. Her hairstyle became her mane and she kept her item pouch, which was now dangling on a strap on her back. Misty on the other hand was an cream lioness cub with white at the underbelly, just like Kairi. However, unlike her fellow Keyblade wielder, Misty mane was orange vs. Kairi's dark red.

Once the two girls managed to soothe each other, they traveled through the savannah with Goofy teaching the girls how to walk on four legs. They messed up a few times but Sora and Ash supported them and they managed to get the hang of it. As the group got closer, they caught sight of three very familiar hyenas: Ed, Shenzi, and Banzai.

"Oh, it's you guys," said Shenzi, "We were hoping you were a meal."

"Hiya," Sora greeted and this only increased their ire at the group until they caught sight of Misty and Kairi.

"Hey sweet cheeks, how's it going," Banzai grinned while Shenzi bit on the head while Ed, well was just being Ed and laughed like and idiot.

"Don't give us any of that 'hiya' stuff," Banzai snapped at them before continuing, "Thanks to you guys, we're back to scavenging scraps for a living." Ed laughed even more when he heard that sentiment much to everyone's annoyance.

"C'mon, it's not that bad," Shenzi fairly told her buddy. "I enjoyed that week-dead elephant we had yesterday." This only served to make Ash's stomach grumble loudly and everyone turned to stare at him while he and Pikachu sweatdropped.

"Er…" Pikachu tried but his voice trailed off.

"Hey, how's Simba?" Sora asked, hoping to redirect the conversation. Shenzi just laughed.

"We gotta laugh every time we hear that dude's name," Banzai said for her.

"Ooh. Say it again," Shenzi pleaded and Banzai happily complied.

"Simba!" Shenzi laughed again and requested, "One more time!"

"Simba!" Shenzi laughed once again.

"Simba!" This time, all three of the hyenas laughed.

"Did these crazy hyenas wake up on the wrong side of the den, this morning?" Misty wondered.

"Nah, they are hyenas after all. The ones here really have a sense of humor," Pikachu replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Go on then, see for yourself," Shenzi coolly replied as she and her amigos got up. "Simba is one wishy-washy king."

"Yeah, I bet right about now, even some of those high and mighty lionesses were wishin' they'd gotten themselves a different king," Banzai contemptuously added as the three left and the group wondered what was going on.

"Gawrsh, whaddya think coulda happened?" Goofy asked once the hyenas were gone.

"I dunno but let's go find this Simba guy and find out," Misty suggested.

As they headed towards Pride Rock, Ash and Sora recounted what they did the last time they were there and the epic battle that ensued. Finally, when they reached Pride Rock, they saw a large mass of darkness that quickly assumed the shape of Scar. Everyone got their weapons at the ready and made to attack but the 'ghost' as they agreed to call it vanished.

"What was that about?" Sora queried once the ghost had vanished and a trio of lionesses approached.

"Have you come to see Simba?" the one in the middle asked.

"We saw Scar's ghost!" Pikachu reported.

"An omen like that could only be foretelling the end of our pride," she said, feeling hopeless. "Yet… King Simba won't do a thing. I guess just being the son of the great King Mufasa doesn't necessarily mean he's ready to rule the kingdom himself." She sighed.

"Trust me, Simba will think of something," Sora assured her but she wasn't convinced.

"The time for thinking is past. We need him to take action—as his father would have done. He ruled with courage and pride. I remember it like yesterday… The mighty Mufasa…" her voice trailed off as she reminisced about the days of Mufasa.

"Simba'll do all that, too. You'll see!" Ash retorted.

"I'm not so sure," the lioness sighed and with that she left the Keyblade bearers and their friends to wonder what it could mean before Sora suggested that they see Simba; something that everyone readily agreed.

A few minutes later, they found their way to the King's den where Simba sat, looking sullen and unsure of himself.

"You came back…" he greeted before catching sight of the two females. One introduction later and Sora brought the conversation around to Scar's ghost. Ash had proposed that they should team up and do something about it because everyone is worried. Pikachu added in that that would be Simba's chance to show them what he's truly made of.

Simba retaliated by growling and saying that it didn't concern them.

"It does if the Heartless and Nobodies are involved!" Ash retorted after they had all gasped from Simba's response.

"Sorry…" he said gruffly.

"It's okay," Sora replied.

"I just wish I knew what my father would do," Simba sighed as he got up and began to pace.

"But he's not here, Simba, it's all up to you now," said Goofy, "And that means what YOU are gonna do being the king. Not what your father woulda done."

"So you're saying, it's all up to me," said Simba.

"See, there you go," said Sora encouragingly.

"Exactly!" said Timon and Pumba, who suddenly appeared from next to the group.

"We know your dad was a great king, and all. But now it's your turn!" Timon said, standing next to the king. "Remember what we taught ya."

"You gotta put the past behind you," Pumba quoted.

"It's time to go out there and show everybody things are gonna be just fine!" said Timon cheerily. "Yeah, you can do it!" Ash cheered in hopes of boosting Simba's confidence as to get him to stop moping around.

"You gotta live for today!" sang Timon. Pumba swung his head and finished, "And find your own path!"

Simba slowly took all of this in and slowly murmured, "Live for today… And find my own path… not my father's…"

"That's it!" Sora agreed as Nala then emerged from where we entered and walked up to Simba. "I'm glad to hear you say that, Simba," she smiled.

"Nala!" Donald greeted.

"Promise me you'll help Simba any way you can," she then requested of the group, "As long as Sora and his friends handle the dangerous parts!" Timon hastily added and they all chuckled and nodded upon that.

"I'm counting on you, Simba…and so is our baby," Nala reminded. There was a round of cheers and squeals as they heard about the future birth of a new life. It wasn't very often that this kind of thing happened.

"Great! Now we're going to have to babysit!" Timon complained. Everyone knew it as a joke, though, so they all laughed heartily.

Simba suggested that they go see Rafiki because he might have some knowledge about Scar's ghost. A few minutes later, Simba led them to the Stone Hollow where Rafiki was supposedly waiting for them. He then enquired whether Simba was ready to become king to which Simba uncertainly replied that he believed that he was ready for the task.

"Can you tell us about Scar's ghost?" Kairi asked politely.

"Oh, yes…the ghost is a being with no body. It is created when the evil heart of Scar meets the hesitant heart of Simba," he explained.

"Hesitant?" Simba gasped.

"Ohh… You thought you were not?" Rafiki asked.

"Gawrsh, that ghost sounds just like a Heartless," Goofy remarked.

"Hmm, I don't know," Simba sighed, feeling more confused than before.

"You're right, you don't," Rafiki agreed. "But you do know it is upsetting. And it is upsetting the hearts of everybody in the Pride Lands. You may not know what it is, but it still IS. This world, it is full of many such things. And these things, a king must face. It is the test that has been set for you, Simba."

"That's all? Come on," Simba pleaded. "You have to tell us more about the ghost…"

"No, not today! But the hyenas in the elephant graveyard may know more. Does not matter, though. There is little the Simba of late can do."

"Aw, don't say that!" Kairi protested. "Not when he's ready to try!"

"In his head, perhaps…but what about his heart?"

"Forget it, guys," Simba scoffed but still felt the frustration in the edge of his heart. "Let's head for the elephant graveyard."

As they rushed across the Savannah and defeating the Heartless that faced them, Ash said to Simba, "I'm certain it'll make sense to you in time."

"You think?" Simba asked, looking suddenly a little bit more hopeful.

"I don't know if this is made to be a some kind of secret test of character or not, but it most likely is, or at least, that's what I think," answered Ash as they eventually reached the Elephant Graveyard where they saw great bowls of fire.

"Whoa!" Kairi reacted with awe. Just then Donald located the hyenas.

"Hey you!" he cried out, catching their attention.

"Aw, c'mon, why can't you guys just leave us alone? Is that too much to ask" Banzai grunted and they nodded while the hyenas sighed before Simba questioned them about Scar's ghost. They initially feigned stupidity and surprise and Ed just laughed before they hinted that they might know something but they all ran in different directions before the could be caught and interrogated so they split into groups and started chasing after them.

"Face it, we lost her!" Donald complained as they kept searching for the hyena.

Sora, Simba, and Donald had lost track of Shenzi and were at a loss at how to track her down and catch her off guard. By some sudden impulse, Sora used Magnera and incredibly, Shenzi was flying towards them, screaming like a baby and spinning around. She complained that she was going to be sick and almost vomited but Sora and Simba attacked together and knocked her out before she could talk much less vomit.

Meanwhile, Misty, Kairi, and Goofy were tasked with tracking down Banzai.

"Just where could Banzai be?" Misty complained angrily.

"He's close by, I can feel it," Kairi murmured as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she suddenly cast a Thundara spell at a rock right next to Goofy and Banzai appeared. They all charged at him and began to attack mercilessly before he was also knocked out and Misty smiled and declared to never underestimate the power of a girl. Kairi and Goofy nodded but sweatdropped at Misty's declaration.

Ash and Pikachu probably had the easiest search of the three groups; They got to search for Ed, which given the fact that he laughs every five minutes, it wasn't a hard task to fulfill but he was faster than the other two so Pikachu used Thunderbolt to paralyze him long enough so Ash could get some hits. He then used Magnera twice to prevent him from escape and Ed was spinning so fast that he started vomiting like there was no tomorrow.

"Ew…" Pikachu scowled as he and Ash dragged the now unconscious Ed back to the fork where they had agreed to meet once they had caught their hyena.

The eight of them made their way back to where they had split up earlier, with their captives in tow. When Ash's group returned with the unconscious Ed they shoved him with Shenzi and Banzai where they said, "Oh no… I guess you caught us **all**," Banzai sneered.

"What're we gonna do?" Shenzi cried out in fake distress. Ed simply laughed. Everyone stared at him for a few seconds while wondering if Ed was capable of coherent speech. Everyone highly doubted it but decided not to say anything about it.

"Tell me about Scar's ghost!" Simba interrogated.

"Sorrrry," Banzai lied. "We don't know a thing."

"Ooh, wait! It's coming back to me!" Shenzi blurted. "That's the one who only hangs out around fraidy cats. Right, Banzai?"

"Enough!" Simba shouted, but Ed simply laughed like a maniac as the ghost appeared behind them. "And there it is," finished Banzai, prompting them to turn around and indeed, they saw the ghost of Scar once more.

"Must be a fraidy cat around here somewhere!" Shenzi snickered. Indeed, everyone noticed that Simba was having weak knees and was also frightened by the reason that Mufasa existed no more was right in front of him.

"Simba! Do something!" Kairi stammered.

"How does it feel to be king, hmm?" Scar's ghost asked Simba, who was backing away. "Why, you must be a truly inspiring ruler by now. After all, you **are** the son of the great Mufasa." Simba felt the fear gripping his heart before fleeing.

"Where are you going?" Ash called, but Simba ignored him and continued running.

"Ah, Simba…running away as always," Scar's ghost sneered as he vanished. The three hyenas then left, and nobody did anything to try to stop them. After all, they had already interrogated them and they were no longer of any use to the heroes and heroines.

"I guess, Rafiki was right," said Pikachu once they were alone.

"You mean, Simba's still unsure?" Sora asked.

"Seems like it," Goofy answered with a sigh. "Do you think there's some way we can help?"

"Hmm… We should start by talking to Simba some more," Donald suggested. "Let's head back to the Pride Lands."

When the eight of them returned to Pride Rock, Nala was the first to approach them and she curiously asked for Simba's whereabouts. Before any of them could answer, Rafiki came in and answered on their behalf.

"Oh ho ho! He ran away! I knew it would not be easy for him. To face his fears, he must go somewhere where the only thing to think of is what to do, not what others think of him," replied Rafiki while everyone else sighed before Donald complained about why Rafiki didn't simply tell them that earlier.

"But where's Simba now?" Donald asked the mandrill.

"Hey, I know!" Timon answered for the Keybladers as he and Pumba came over. "I bet he's at the oasis. It's our favorite hangout spot!"

"Got it!" said Sora, "We should go check it out."

The eight of them hurried to the Jungle where they reunited with Simba the first time. Just then, they made it to the Oasis, where Simba was sleeping. However, they also saw Scar's Ghost appear from the darkness.

"Father…" Simba murmured as he woke up and looked up at the sky.

"Hmm. It seems even your dad's abandoned you. How sad," sneered a voice and Simba turned to see Scar's Ghost taking shape.

"Simba!" Ash called as they came over. The ghost saw them and vanished again.

"Simba, are you okay?" Pikachu asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright."

"It's no use. I'll never be the king my father was.", Simba sighed, not part of the conversation.

"But Simba… That's not what you're supposed to be," said Sora, "You can't be Mufasa. You can only be you."

"Everybody believes in you as a king," Kairi agreed. "They just want to see what you'll do."

"The only reason why some say they liked your father better is because you haven't done much of anything yet, that's all," Misty finished.

"I know that," Simba replied. Ash sighed before saying, "Then stop moping and DO something about it!"

"I can't!" Simba snapped.

"…Fine." Kairi sighed in disappointment. As she turned to leave, she called for the others to follow. "Come on, everybody." Ash felt unsure about what to do but in the end, he followed suit but felt like a traitor all the same.

"Yeah. Why stick around if he's not even gonna try?" Donald growled as they approached a log. Just then, we saw Scar's ghost appear close to Simba, who had turned away. Having an idea, Pikachu peered up from behind the log and imitated Scar's voice as best he could without making it sound obvious. Everyone else cottoned on and followed suit.

"The hesitant king will one day lose all his friends," Pikachu said in an accurate imitation. The others decided to pitch and Sora said, "He won't even be able to make any new friends."

"King Simba the doubtful, he is…" Donald began.

"Worried by a silly ol' ghost…" Goofy taunted in a teasing manner.

"Who can do nothing but scare you," Ash added.

"Ooh, Simba the do-nothing king…" Misty sneered teasingly.

"No!" Simba countered as he glared at the ghost.

"Try and stop me!" Kairi taunted.

"If you can." Pikachu finished. Sora finished with a menacing, evil laugh that made everyone look at him, slightly fearfully while he scratched the back of his a bit sheepishly while everyone else silently chuckled.

Simba leaped at Scar's ghost and it vanished. Everyone ran over and said, "You did it! The ghost is gone!"

"We knew you could do it!" said Donald.

"Hooray for Simba!" Goofy cheered.

"HIP HIP HOORAY!" Everyone cheered in unison while Simba smiled at the sentiment. "You know, I'm really lucky to have friends who'll stand by me…and help me see clearly." Simba realized. "My father…wasn't so fortunate."

"There you go again," Sora sighed.

"I mean… Everyone here, and in the Pride Lands, wants me to succeed," Simba continued "All of you, Pumba, Timon, Rafiki…Nala. You all want what's best for me. But my father always had Scar lurking behind his back, trying to cut him down. I've got to make the most of my blessings, and rebuild this kingdom."

"You know it!" Donald agreed.

"Are you gonna say it, or do it?" Kairi asked, trying to motivate him.

"Wait and see," answered Simba confidently.

"Simba!" Timon called as he ran like the wind toward the group. Once he reached them, he explained, "Simba! Come quick! There's a bazillion ghosts of Scar haunting the Pride Lands! Everybody but Nala high-tailed it out of there. And now she need your help!"

As Simba started to run back to Pride Rock, Timon said, "Our little Simba…all grown up and finding his place in the world…"

"Nice try. You're coming, too!" Simba called as he saw that they weren't following.

Shrugging, the rest of them joined Simba and ran back to the Pride Lands, defeating the Heartless along the way.

Once they made it to the Pride Lands, sure enough, there were over nine thousand ghosts of Scar all over the place. Kairi freaked out a bit, but Misty calmed her down. The eight of them then charged, ready to do some ghostbusting. They were relatively easy. It was just like the thousand heartless battle back in Hollow Bastion.

Later, they made it to Pride Rock, where Scar's ghost had Pumbaa scared out of his mind and Nala, who was injured, cornered. Just as he was about to attack, the three of them noticed the group of eight arrive.

"We're here!" Sora called.

"Where's Simba?" asked Nala. On cue, Simba emerged as everyone parted and bowed to make way for him.

"I've come back, Nala," Simba told her.

"So, Simba the cowardly decided to return," Scar's ghost snickered as he faced Simba. They stared at each other before Simba commanded him to get out. The ghost vanished in a flash of darkness, much to everyone's surprise.

"That was too easy," Ash muttered.

Just then, dark energy emerged from everywhere in the Pride Lands and clashed in the Savannah.

"You just had to tempt fate, didn't you?" Donald scolded.

"Are you with me, everyone?" Simba called to us.

"Now and forever, Your Majesty!" Ash declared as they all saluted to Simba.

"Then let's go!"

All of them, save for Timon, Pumba, and Nala, were headed for the Savannah when suddenly, the darkness was swirling around and created a giant heartless. Donald, Goofy, and Pikachu seemed to vanish. That seemed to happen often for some reason so the Keyblade bearers and Simba faced the giant heartless that they eventually decided to name Groundshaker. It was green but with a red head and a mini-landscape on its back.

The battle started with Groundshaker stomping around, creating small shockwaves that everyone jumped. Kairi jumped and forced the Groundshaker's paw back and stunned it. Everyone seized the opportunity and started bashing its head as hard as they could with as many hits as they could.

Groundshaker gave a loud roar before turning its head completely upside down, causing a fair bit of disgust amongst the fighters but they shrugged it off before following Sora as he spun up onto the Heartless' back and started beating the monster that resided there while trying to dodge the attacks that were dished out but got hit a few times.

Ash and Misty jumped off and Sora and Kairi quickly followed suit before using dash to evade the monster's wild stomps and after a few minutes of intense fighting, Simba and the Keyblade wielders managed to finish off the Heartless where a large heart quickly appeared and vanished just as quickly.

At Pride Rock, Simba and Nala looked out into the Savannah, where the Groundshaker was vanquished.

"Simba seems fine now," Sora sighed in relief.

"Ha! The king has returned!" said Rafiki. "The Pride Lands will not forget King Simba's courage. Or the courage of those who fought beside him."

"Do you think your quest will ever be over?" Simba asked the Keyblade wielders.

"I don't know… But I think, as long as the Keyblades stays with us… we'll have to keep fighting," Sora answered.

"Ahh… The struggle never ends," Rafiki wisely remarked. "That is the great Circle of Life."

"Never ever?" Sora asked incredulously.

"I believe…the secret to victory…is a strong heart," Rafiki said as he pointed at Kairi's heart.

Suddenly, Rafiki started to yell at them, "Go on, go on, go—go then!" He laughed. "Go on, get out! Yes, yes! It is time! Your fight continues…"

As Rafiki held up his staff, Ash's Keyblade appeared in his paw and Ash realized what he had to do and pointed the Keyblade at the staff and sealed the keyhole to the Pridelands. Ash turned to look at everyone and said, "I guess I did what I needed to do here."

Everyone bid Simba goodbye and said, "Until we meet again, Your Magesty."

"I hope that's soon." Simba remarked and everyone nodded.

"It will be!" Kairi answered. "Take care!"

With that, after saying goodbye to Timon and Pumba, Sora and the gang made their way down Pride Rock with great haste. After reaching some distance, Donald used his magic to teleport back to the Gummi Ship.

Luna and Fred had watched Ash's performance and felt that Ash was almost ready. With these thoughts in her mind, Luna and Fred decided to explore the Pridelands while invisible so Luna cast Vanish and they roamed around without anyone's knowledge.

**I think that this chapter turned out fairly well. I hope that you guys like and tell me what you thought of the chapter. The story doesn't have many chapters left and to the reviewer who asked if I'm going to add worlds from Marvel, I'm not going to add worlds from Marvel in this story but if I write a sequel, that might be something to consider but as of now, I won't be using Marvel worlds. **


	9. Special Chapter: Time For Sports!

**Okay FFS, you asked me to write a Kingdom Hearts and Pokémon short story and I rose to the challenge and gave it a go. If you happen be reading my (Yue's Pokehearts story) think of this as a side story to that. I should point out that this is post Kingdom Hearts 3 so Riku will be back to his normal self.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokémon or Kingdom Hearts in anyway whatsoever because let's face it, if I did, I would be well known by now.**

"Hey, check out that cool world over there," Sora said, pointing to a seemingly random world that looked like a basketball stadium. This caught everyone else's attention and everyone seemed keen on going there.

"I wonder if we'll find something there," Ash said curiously as Donald and Goofy steered to ship to the world because they were curious about this place as well.

"We might as well go there because it doesn't look familiar so we might have to seal the keyhole," Misty sighed as they landed on the world.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Ash's friends were already there just hanging out while wondering how the hell they got there. They shrugged it off and began to play some basketball, just for the heck of it.

"I bet you five dollars that Drew will win," May said to Max who grinned and placed the money on the table.

"I bet fifteen that Gary will dominate Drew," Brock said as he laid down his money on the table.

**Fifteen Minutes Later:**

"Pay up!" May shouted as Max and Brock grumbled and reluctantly gave her the money and she started doing a happy dance.

"Whoa, this is a weird world," Sora said as he looked around, it resembled Olympus Coliseum but it had two hoops, one at each end.

"We have free spaces for our trial basketball game!" a voice shouted as a fat guy was tossing flyers all over the place and this piqued the gang's interest as Sora picked up the flyer and looked at it curiously.

"What's it say?" Donald asked as he tried to get a look at the flyer as everyone crowded around him to get a better look.

"People of all ages! Do you want a chance at fame? Glory? Try out our new Basketball league!" Sora said as he read the flyer to the rest of the group.

"What's basketball?" Ash asked and everyone else stopped to think, what is basketball?

"Well we can check it out at the counter over there," Kairi said as she pointed to a counter with a blue haired girl was signing someone up for the league as they approached the counter.

"Hello, are you here to sign for the Basketball event we're having?" the girl asked as she smiled brightly at them.

"But what IS basketball?" Misty asked and the girl gaped at them as though they were crazy.

"Something tells me that you guys aren't from around here," she said as the group began to sweat nervously but she shrugged it off and began to explain the rules and how to play using a video tutorial. (Think Mario Hoops).

"So do you want to enter?" she asked and the group thought about it for a second before nodding enthusiastically as she signed them up.

"I'm Dawn by the way," she said with a smile as the others introduced themselves as she led them to the court.

"So Dawn, how many people get to be on the team?" Ash asked as Dawn turned to face them.

"It's four on four," Dawn replied.

"Well, we'd better get to practicing," Sora said as he and Ash ran to the arena with everyone else following them.

"Wow," Ash said as he looked around.

"Ash! What are you doing here?" May asked as she waved them over to the table they were sitting at.

"May, Max, Brock, long time no see!" Ash said happily as he greeted his old friends.

"Who are these?" Brock asked, as he gestured to Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy.

"Oh, these are my new friends: Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy," Ash said as he introduced them.

"Hey there," Sora said with a wave.

"So you decided to show up," a voice said and they turned to see Riku walking towards them with Ven and Roxas right next to him.

"Riku! Yeah, I just came across this place by accident," Sora said as he scratched his head sheepishly as they talked and formed a team.

"Hey Ashy-boy," an arrogant voice called and Ash turned around a second time to see Gary and Drew walking towards him with a basketball in each of their hands.

"Gary! What are you doing here?" Ash asked, looking at his friend and rival in Pokémon.

"I don't remember HOW I got here but I'm here to compete in the Basketball League," Gary said as Drew flicked his hair and said, "You should try it, you might learn something that could help you in the future."

"Do you want to join our team, we are one player short," Gary said and Ash nodded enthusiastically and they all ran off to court and start practicing.

"Who are you going to root for?" Donald asked Goofy as they sat in the bleachers.

"I'm not sure, I've been friends with Sora for a long time but I don't want to see Ash lose either, ahyuck," Goofy replied.

"Well why not root for both of them?" a voice asked and they turned to see Max sitting next to them.

"Who are you?" Donald asked, looking at Max intently.

"Oh, I'm Max, I already know who you two are by the way," Max added as Goofy opened his mouth to introduce himself but closed it when Max told them that he already knew their names.

They got along really well and began trading travel stories with each other until they heard a whistle blow and they turned to see all the teams facing towards Dawn who was going to explain the rules.

"Okay everyone, the rules are simple, you have to shoot the ball into the hoop to score a point and each successful shot is two points, this game is a make-it take-it so if you make the shot, you get the ball," Dawn explained to the crowd who nodded in understanding.

"Ready?" Sora asked his teammates who nodded as they left to go to their court and much to their surprise, they were playing against members of Organization XIII, namely Lexaeus, Luxord, Axel, Saix.

"Gary, who's our fourth teammate?" Ash asked and Gary pointed at a purple haired boy who was wearing his jersey and tossed three to his teammates.

"Hi there, what's your name?" Ash asked curiously.

"Paul," he replied curtly as he walked away.

"What's with him, I swear I'll never figure him out," Drew said, shaking his head in annoyance at Paul's behavior.

Sora, Riku, Roxas, and Ventus were talking strategy as they figured what position everyone would be best suited for.

"Sora, you will be a forward," Riku said as he quickly explained what that was and Sora nodded to show that he understood.

"Ven and Roxas will be our guards, and I'll be the center," Riku finished and everyone knew what they were doing so they quickly getting some last minute practice before the first round started and their opponents were doing the same thing.

"Is everybody ready?" Dawn asked as she readied her whistle for the first round, as it was Team Riku and Team Saix that were going to play first.

"Ready? And Begin!" Dawn shouted as she blew her whistle and the ball was hurled into the air and Sora used his high jump to grab it.

"Run Sora! RUN!" Kairi shouted from the stands as Sora sprinted past Lexaeus and Axel and dribbled the ball and finally when he was close enough, he shot and he scored.

"The score is two zero to Team Riku!" the announcer shouted as the audience either cheered or booed.

"Sora! I'm open!" Ventus shouted as he ran near the hoop and Sora pasted the ball to him and he missed the lay up and Luxord got the rebound as quickly ran towards the other hoop and shot and scored as the crowd went wild.

"I'm sorry," Ven muttered and they shook their heads saying that it was okay.

Riku managed to steal the ball from Saix and passed to Roxas who passed to Ven who passed back Riku who shot and scored!

Sora had the ball but Axel stole it from him and passed to Luxord who passed back to Axel who was guarded by Roxas and as he passed to Lexeaus who was guarded by Ven so he stole ball and made a 3 point shot that succeeded so Ven now had the ball and passed to Sora and he passed to Riku but Axel intercepted the shot and made another three pointer.

"The score is seven five to Team Riku!" the announcer said as they took a break and the quickly started planning for the second half while drinking some Gatorade.

"Wow, that was intense," Ash said, looking impressed as he watched Sora and his friends play.

"Let the second half begin!" Dawn shouted as the ball flew in the air but this time, Saix managed to catch it and quickly started running to the hoop.

"I call travel!" Roxas shouted as Saix scowled and Dawn blew her whistle to call the foul and told Saix to hand Roxas the ball, which he did ever so reluctantly.

Roxas passed to Riku who passed to Sora who quickly dribbled the ball towards the hoop and shot and scored.

They tried to keep this up for the whole second half but their opponents managed to steal the ball and score fairly frequently so the score was tied and they had to go into overtime.

"Since we have to get on with our other matches, will Sora kindly take this free throw shot?" Dawn called as she handed him the ball and he aimed the ball at the hoop and by some mysterious force, he managed to make it and it sealed the game and allowed them to move on to the next round.

The other matches were very brief as some of players on one team would stop to do something stupid half way into the game so the team was immediately disqualified and a few matches later; it was Ash's team to start playing.

"Good luck Ash," Pikachu said as Ash gave him the thumbs up and hastily put on his jersey and ran to the court so they could begin playing.

"About time you showed up," a voice growled and he turned to see Paul scowling at him while Gary and Drew didn't seem to care all that much.

"Okay so Ash, you'll be the forward, Paul and I will be guards and Drew will be our center, alright?" Gary asked as he looked as he team and they all nodded to show that they also understood. Thankfully Ash managed to figure it out while they were practicing on the court.

Gary immediately noticed that their opponents were Butch, Jessie, James, and Cassidy and they all had confident smirks on their faces.

"Team Rocket! What are you doing here?" Gary and Ash asked irritably.

"That's none of your business twerps," they replied in unison as they sighed.

The whistle was blown and Butch tried to grab the ball but Ash managed to get it first and started dribbling as James was guarding him.

"Ash!" Drew called so Ash faked left and James fell for it and he passed to the right and Drew caught it and dribbled to the hoop and shot and scored.

"Drew! Pass to me!" Gary shouted as Drew passed to him and he passed to Paul who sidestepped Butch and made the lay up.

"This is too easy!" Gary shouted as he got the ball but Jessie of all people managed to steal the ball and ran towards the hoop while dribbling it.

"I got it!" Ash shouted as he quickly sprinted after her but not before she shot and scored a three-point basket.

"Not so full of yourself now, are you twerp," Jessie sneered as Ash ignored her and quickly stole the ball while she wasn't looking and managed to score a basket.

"This is a waste of my time," Paul muttered as he stole the ball from Cassidy and started running abnormally fast and managed to score a three pointer.

"He's good," Ash muttered to himself as he sat down for the half time and began discussing more tactics for the second half.

"Let the second half begin!" Dawn shouted as she blew her whistle and the ball was thrown in the air and Cassidy managed to catch and make a half court shot.

"Oh my god," Drew said, looking completely stunned.

"Who said women suck a basketball?" Cassidy mocked as she quickly grabbed the ball and tried to score again but missed and Ash got the rebound and quickly dribbled his way to the hoop while passing to Paul, Drew, and Gary when he was guarded and they managed to make plenty of shots.

Team Rocket also managed to do this as well but Gary's Team won the game and moved on to the next round.

For Sora and Ash's teams, they were both dominating their games and would easily win their games in a short time span, like it was a contest battle.

"We are now at the final round!" Dawn announced as the crowd cheered, "The Teams Gary and Riku! Begin!" she shouted as she lobbed the ball in the air and Paul grabbed the ball and quickly raced towards the hoop with Ven chasing him as fast as he could which was saying something as he could run really fast.

Ven managed to steal the ball from Paul and dribbled it over to the hoop and shot and successfully making the basket.

Sora now had the ball and passed to Riku who passed to Roxas who passed back to Sora and Sora passed to Ven but Ash intercepted the pass and dribbled the ball towards the hoop and scored as well.

"Now we're tied," Riku muttered to himself as he stole the ball from Paul but missed the shot so Drew got the rebound and also missed his shot as well.

Sora managed to get the rebound and started dribbling as fast as he could and made a slam dunk at half time.

"Whoa," everyone said as they stared at Sora who blushed in embarrassment as he scratched the back of his head.

"That was awesome, Sora!" Roxas said, looking amazed at they drank some Gatorade so they could play the second half and immediately talked strategy as to beating Gary's team.

"Sora, I have no plans to lose here you know!" Ash shouted from across the arena and Sora nodded in agreement as he replied in the same way.

Sora managed to get the ball right from the get-go but Drew was quick to start guarding him so Sora was in a tight spot so he faked twice and caught Drew off-guard and quickly passed to Ven who quickly started running and dribbling towards the hoop and shot and scored a three point shot and Gary quickly retaliated with a three point shot of his own while Ash and Paul were guarding Ven and Roxas respectively.

"Dang, they are good," Ven muttered as he tried to fake it but Ash saw right through this and so Ven did the first thing that came into his head: pass in between his legs and hope that someone on his team would catch it.

Ven gave it a go and much to his surprise as anyone else's, Riku happened to waiting for Ven to pass the ball and quickly caught it and while everyone else was stunned by the bounce pass, Riku ran to the hoop and made a slam dunk and at that moment the buzzer sounded, ending the game and Riku's Team won that one.

"Wow, I can't believe we won!" Ven and Roxas cheered as they did a happy dance and Gary's Team smiled and offered their hands in good sportsmanship, well except Paul because he left muttering "pathetic," to himself.

"Congratulations Riku!" Sora and Kairi cheered as Ash gave them a high five and then one to Riku, which he slowly returned.

"I may not have won this league, but at least I got the honor to compete in it," Ash said as he watched Sora and Riku hold up the cup together along with Roxas and Ven.

**What do you think? Tell me what you thought.  
**


	10. Hollow Bastion? No, Radiant Garden

**I'm sorry. I've been really bad at updating this but I can promise I'll be able to update faster as time goes on because I've a bit more free time so my next update will faster than this one was, I hope. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon or any OCs in the story.**

**XXXX = Page Break  
**

"Fred, I'm worried," Luna told the Pachirisu as they watched Sora, Ash, and the gang flying on the gummi ship, talking happily about their journey thus far and playing card games. Fred merely looked his confusion while Luna sighed in frustration.

"Ash's magic and aura powers are coming into conflict, I can feel it, I just hope that everyone will be able to help keep it in check," said Luna grimly. Fred gave Luna a pat on the shoulder and a reassuring smile before suggesting that they go prank Organization XIII again. Luna happily agreed and summoned a corridor of darkness and began plotting…

**XXXX**

After stopping the Heartless in the Pridelands, the group had decided to proceed to the next world. Everyone sensed that something was wrong in Hollow Bastion and had agreed to go there next.

Immediately upon landing and disembarking, the group noticed a pair of heartless fleeing. Everyone stared in confusion before Pikachu spoke up saying, "Wait a sec, I thought everything was supposed to be under control here."

Everyone exchanged a confused glance with each other before noticing the difference in the town's defense system. It was red instead of the usual blue. The claymores gave off a strange feeling that something bad was going to happen.

"Must be Organization XIII again; we better go see Leon," Sora suggested.

They heard a grunt and then a thud to see Ash on the ground, unconscious and his body was giving off some sort of blue light.

"What the hell is going on with Ash?" Pikachu demanded, bounding to his training while prodding him in a number of different places. Misty and Kairi looked on with looks on their faces while Sora picked up Ash and carried him piggyback style. The group met Donald's uncle Scrooge who offered them Sea Salt ice cream, which they accepted. Misty and Pikachu, who were new to the taste, scrunched their faces from the salty taste before the expression changed to one of delight.

"So salty," Donald chimed.

"But so sweet," Sora finished happily.

After finishing the savory treat, the group made its way through Hollow Bastion with Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Misty, and Pikachu covered for Sora who was still carrying Ash on his back. Finally, they cleared the heartless and quickly found reprieve inside Merlin's house where they saw Yuffie shouting at Cid to hurry up with something. The sextet (Ash is unconscious) had no idea what these people were talking about. Merlin eventually joined the conflict before the sextet made its presence known.

"Talk about your good timin'," said Cid gruffly.

"What happened to this place?" Kairi asked once Sora had placed Ash on the bed.

"The MCP is wreaking havoc inside the computer again," Yuffie explained, much to everyone's dismay.

"Not again," Donald groaned.

"Accordin' to Leon, anyway…He went on over to Ansem's study to find out what all the ruckus was all about," Cid explained.

**Flashback: **

Leon and Aerith walk into the Study. Leon enters the passageway to see the computer room and ran to the railing. He looked down over the Heartless Manufactory. He ran back to the computer room and frantically started typing at the keyboard. The metal door opens and Leon walks down to into the Heartless Manufactory where the machine's lasers are sending out Heartless.

_An alarm sounds as Aerith and Leon stand in the computer room. The computer screen reads: "Ignorant users. Obey the MCP". Leon types on the keyboard, looking for a solution but to no avail._

**End of Flashback: **

"So basically all the data in the computer is being used to create Heartless," Misty summarized. Cid nodded.

"That MCP sure doesn't know when to quit," Yuffie commented.

"How's Tron doing?" Sora asked.

"We don't know; we can't reach him. We figured that the MCP must have forced him onto the game grid and it doesn't sound like a particularly fun game either," said Yuffie sadly. Everyone else felt a swell of pity for Tron well up inside them before Sora suggested that they go check on Tron.

"Thanks kid. We're puttin' together an MCP eradication program and I gotta hunch that it's almost finished," said Cid.

"I hope you hunch is correct for once," said Merlin while Cid glared at the old wizard.

"Anyway, we're going to need Tron's help once the Eradication program is finished…"

"Don't sweat it, we'll make sure to tell Tron," said Sora confidently.

"That's great and all but what about Ash?" Pikachu asked. Everyone immediately turned their attention to the Keyblade bearer who was currently unconscious in the bed while still emitting a light blue light from his body.

Merlin immediately began examining the boy before saying that Ash is under intense strain and no one seemed to understand so Merlin went into a speech about Aura and magic and what happens when the two mix.

"So Ash has to remain asleep?" Misty asked, disgruntled.

"Yes, do not worry, we will keep an eye on him," Merlin assured the group as they nodded their thanks and headed towards Ansem's study.

"I hope what happens to you isn't what happened to the last boy who'd had magic and aura merged together," Merlin murmured as he began his work to ensure that Ash would continue to live a full life.

**With Sora and the Gang: **

The moment the gang stepped foot into the postern, three members of the gullwings rounded on the sextet.

"Liars!"

"Wha—?" Sora began but Rikku cut him off.

"Leon doesn't have any treasure!"

"…And we fought for you guys."

Everyone tried to placate the gullwings but to no avail. They declared that they were going to take the Keyblade bearers' treasure but to discover that they didn't have anything. The Gullwings searched theme and took great interest in their items. They got together and discussed it with each other before declaring that they were going to take all of their items.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Kairi exclaimed.

"Oh foofie," Yuna pouted.

"This stinks!" Rikku pouted.

"So not cool," Paine said, sounding bored.

"Look, sorry we tricked you, but…" Sora began.

"Forget about it. Leon told us the whole story. He told us that your journey has been really rough," Paine explained.

"So it wouldn't be fair if we took your things," Yuna continued.

"We'll root for you," Rikku finished and in a flash of light the gullwings vanished.

The gang stared at the spot the three had vanished before regaining their composure and continued to Ansem's computer room where they see Leon checking out the room and when he heard them he spun around and pointed his gunblade at them before realizing who they were and muttered a hasty apology. They nod as they walk further into the room.

"You can't talk to Tron if this room gets taken over," Aerith informed them.

"Did you check in with Cid?" Leon asked.

"Uh-huh, he said that the eradicator program was almost done," said Sora.

"Great! Say, Leon, why don't you go work with Cid; I have this place under control," Aerith suggested.

"Are you sure? All by yourself?" Leon asked but was immediately silenced by the pissed off look that Aerith gave him, causing the Keyblade users to sweatdrop. He immediately apologized to the other girl before falling silent once again.

"How's Tron?" Misty asked.

"We still can't get in touch with him, maybe you guys should give a shot," Aerith suggested.

"No, we'll go speak to him in person," said Sora with an air of finality.

"Then I have a favor to ask," Leon began. Everyone turned to face him before he continued: "When you find Tron, can you tell him to go to the I/O tower? That's where we'll be uploading the MCP eradication program," Leon explained.

"The I/O tower, got it," said Goofy.

"Thanks and watch your backs," Leon advised and the rest of the group nodded.

Sora accessed the computer and with the help of Roxas beamed everyone to Tron's world.

**Meanwhile with Ash:**

_Where am I _Ash thought as he looked around; he then realized that he was at Merlin's house. _Where Pikachu, Misty and the others_! Ash thought looking panicked.

"Ah, you're finally awake," said a voice and Ash turned around to see Merlin walking towards him with Cid still working at the computer.

"What happened? How long have I been out? Where are all my friends?" Ash asked quickly.

"Ash, you were unconscious because of your magic and aura powers have come into conflict with each other and the resulting clash has overwhelmed your mind thus leading to your state of unconsciousness. You've been out for a few hours and everyone else is going to help Tron defeat the MCP," Merlin explained.

"How do I prevent my aura powers from going wild again?" Ash asked, ignoring the other bits for now.

"I'm not sure…" answered the wizard sadly.

Ash lapsed into a moment of silence as he absorbed the information. He then wondered: _Should I try to get my Valor and Wisdom forms back? Would that help me keep a stronger hold over this aura power that I have? _Ash realized that he had no answers so his only guess was to try it and hope to whatever entity he worshipped that it worked.

**Scene Change:**

Ash closed his eyes and willed himself for the forms to come back and on cue the red and blue orbs floated in front of him. Ash made to grab them but they moved slightly out of his reach.

_What's going on? _Ash wondered as he kept trying to reach for the two drive orbs.

You wish to regain the powers, which you have lost.

Ash nodded.

To regain them, you must prove yourself worthy to wield them.

The drive orbs vanished and hoards of Heartless came at him. Ash smirked before summoning his Keyblade and defeating the Heartless with ease. Just when he was about to celebrate, a giant Heartless struck him from behind and knocked him to the ground. The Heartless proceeded to unleash a barrage but Ash dodge rolled away before concentrating his aura and willed it to fill him up to the brim before finishing off the Heartless once and for all.

Once he was sure his enemies were defeated he looked around and heard the voice again:

_Very good; you have proved your worth; both to yourself and to your adversaries. _Ash nodded in appreciation.

_Reclaim that power which you have sought_ The voice commanded as the two drive orbs reappeared and returned to Ash's side. Ash felt more strength and magic flow through him and stabilize the aura powers that had been raging through his heart ever since his last visit. He still wondered why he had not had to deal with this sooner but shrugged it off in favor of finding his friends.

**With Sora and the gang: **

"So this is what Tron's world looks like," said Pikachu, examining himself. He had yellow circuit lines all through his body and tail but his cheeks were still red and still able to spark electricity when the need arises.

"Gwarsh, I hope Tron is doin' okay," said Goofy worriedly.

"I hope Ash is finally conscious," said Misty quietly.

Sora and Kairi walk over to the terminal and see that it was working. They then beam everyone to the game grid where they see Tron fighting for his life against some Heartless. Everyone readied his or her weapons, preparing for the battle.

**With Leon: **

Leon entered Merlin's house and asked Cid if he was finished. Ash quickly put his hat back on and joined the swordsman. They exchange a brief greeting before turning their attention back to Cid.

"Would be, if it weren't for the old loon's magic!" Cid snapped and Merlin began to fume.

"OLD loon you say!" Merlin fumed.

"I'm tryin' to work here!" Cid snapped.

Merlin pointed his wand at Cid while saying that he would show him who's old. He cast a spell as Cid types up the last bit of the program code and the disk popped out.

"Done!" said Cid triumphantly before Merlin's spell hits the keyboard and knocks Cid to the floor. Cid held the disk up for Leon to take before saying, "Here you go, Leon. One homemade program, a loony wizard's special."

"This had better work," said Merlin, tapping his wand in his hand.

"I'm off," said Leon.

"I'm going too," said Ash with a look of determination in his eyes.

Leon didn't bother trying to argue and nodded.

"Be on your guard, you two," Merlin advised.

Both males nodded and took off for Ansem's computer room while taking on all the Heartless along the way.

As they kept running, Leon filled Ash in about the situation with Heartless and this only strengthened Ash's resolve to keep going so the males kept running, defeating any Heartless that got in their way and finally made it to the computer room where Aerith was waiting for them.

She asked Ash if he was okay and he replied in affirmative. Leon told the Keyblade wielder to find Sora and the others and head to the I/O tower. Ash, with the help of Rallen, beamed himself over to Tron's world.

**With Sora, Tron and the gang:**

"There's too many!" Sora gasped, feeling the last bit of energy leave him. He tried casting Curaga but it just didn't heal him enough so he was close to his breaking point. Glancing around, Sora could tell that his friends weren't faring much better and knew that unless some help came soon, they were finished.

Suddenly, the whole group saw an explosion of aura and looked around to see Ash standing there, Keyblade in hand. He offered a hand to help Sora up, which caused him to grin as he took and got to his feet.

"You okay?" Misty asked once everyone had recovered.

"Yeah, I'm fine now," Ash grinned before they were beamed back to the Pit Cell.

**XXXX**

"You really saved me."

"Don't mention it," Sora grinned.

"What's going on here?" Donald asked.

"The MCP is ready to wage an all-out war against the users. What's been happening on the outside?" Tron enquired.

"Well there's this machine for making Heartless—it's gone completely berserk. The town's defense system is having big problems, too," Sora explained but cut Tron on before he could saying anything by adding, "But our friend, Cid, is working on a program that can de-rezz the MCP. Once we pick up from the I/O Tower, he thinks we can use it to stop the MCP for good."

"Let's give it a try," said Tron.

"Great!" Kairi chirped.

"So who's this Cid?" Tron asked.

Everyone fell anime-style.

"He's a friend of ours," Misty began, "Leon, Merlin, Aerith, Yuffie…they're all really worried about you, Tron."

Tron looked around the Pit Cell before saying, "I must have a lot of User friends."

Everyone nodded.

"That program should be done by now," said Ash, looking towards the exit to the cell.

"To the tower!" Pikachu declared before bolting off with Ash, Sora and the gang on the mouse's heels, fighting the Heartless along the way.

**XXXX**

Meanwhile, Leon started typing on the keyboard but couldn't do what he wanted. Aerith told him to give her the disk. He complied and she merely placed it into the disk slot before saying that he shouldn't talk with his mouthful, prompting Leon to give a small smirk.

**XXXX**

Once everyone had defeated the Heartless, they made their way to the I/O tower and Tron stood on the platform where data comes in.

"Nothing's come in yet," said Tron.

"Leon, come ooonnn," Sora whined childishly.

As though on cue, the system lit up and Tron smiled.

"There."

"All right!" Ash cheered as Tron jumped onto the system and took off his identity disk. It immediately begins to glow and slowly hovers higher and higher. Eventually, the disk, now with the eradication program, slowly began to fall back into Tron's hands and he promptly examines the disk.

"This is very strange," Tron concluded after a moment.

"That's Merlin's magic!" Pikachu declared.

"Huh? There's a power booster in there for me and flight routines for the solar sailer!"

"Meaning…we're all setting?" Ash asked.

"Well as you users say; we won't know until we give a try," Tron replied.

They made their way to the simulation hanger where they boarded the solar sailer. Everyone was in awe with it, it reminded them somewhat of a cable car in a way but it was so much cooler. Tron reminded them to keep a looking because the MCP won't just let them waltz in.

Cue the Heartless. Everyone readied their weapons to kill off the Heartless and they eventually made their way to Central Computer Mesa.

"The MCP is straight ahead," said Tron, pointing to the entrance.

"Let's settle this, once and for all," said Sora.

They ran into the Central Computer Core to see a man in red and a red spinning disk waiting for them.

"Who's that?" Sora asked.

"Sark, the MCP's number two," Tron replied.

"Tenacious little bugs, your time is up! Prepare for de-resolution!" Sark shouted as he summoned a few Heartless. Everyone assumed a stance and began to fight the Heartless commander.

Everyone used magnera to pull them together and attacked together, killing the Heartless that survived the magnet spell.

"Tron!"

"Running execute!" Tron shouted as he summoned data pieces. The duo moved around, greatly damaging Sark in the process before Sark admitted defeat.

"You're very persistent, Tron."

"I'm also better then." The other couldn't help but snigger at this.

"We would have made a great team," said Sark weakly.

Tron ignores him and sent his disk whirling at Sark. It strikes his helmet and he lands on the floor, data pulses dying off. Tron looks to the large spinning column and said that they now had to take care of the MCP.

"This thing, is the MCP?" Sora asked incredulously.

"That's it, Ugly, isn't it."

"Tron…don't you understand? We don't need users. We've advanced—they're superfluous. Be a part of me, and together the world will be ours to control," the Master Control Program declared to the smaller security program.

"MCP, you still don't get it, do you!" Tron shouted, shaking his head at the MCP.

"Sark…" said the MCP, who had stopped spinning. "Sark. All my functions are now yours!" A wave of data shone down onto Sark's neck and his body coursed with energy. The commander stands up, higher than ever, as he's grown several feet high. He stomped over to them and the MCP formed a data barrier around himself.

The teams split up: Ash, Misty, Kairi, and Pikachu attempted to keep Sark occupied while Sora, Tron, Donald, and Goofy destroy the barriers and defeat the MCP. However, when the lasers come, they had to throw up a Reflera shield or use dodge roll to evade.

Sark continued his pursuit on Ash, Misty, Kairi, and Pikachu. Ash and Pikachu destroyed the data that kept him standing. Once the commander couldn't stand, the two girls jumped up and led a flurry of attacks on Sark's head, allow Sora's team to continue deleting the MCP without further interruptions.

When Sark regained consciousness, he immediately gave chase to Kairi who immediately began running away. He smirked and summoned a giant barrier and now Kairi was surrounded. She, by some insane miracle, back-flipped up the wall and dove towards the commander and ran her Keyblade through his head. Needless to say, the scream that followed was one of the most disturbing sounds that the group had ever heard.

Once Sora and Tron managed to finally finish deleting the MCP, Tron jumped for joy shouting, "We did it!" He also pumped his fist repeatedly; drawing a chuckle from the rest of the gang.

"I see Tron has a silly side too," Ash laughed.

Tron quickly regained his composure before saying "I learned it from you. Of course, I do have my silly limits."

"Okay, then I'll tweak your program when we get back to the User world," Sora suggested cheekily, drawing a laugh from everyone in the room.

"You? Maybe we better not try that," said Tron.

"Aww, how 'bout it, guys, singin' Tron, dancin' Tron. Sound good?" Ash asked the group.

"Yeah!" Everyone chirped.

Tron couldn't help but laugh with the rest of them but said, "Okay, okay, fine. But before I crash…Sora, Kairi, Ash, Misty, Pikachu, Donald, and Goofy…and to all the users out there…Thank you. You've made so much stronger. You taught what friendship is truly all about, and I'll never forget it. As soon as I met all of you, I knew that we would be able to defeat the MCP and free the system," Tron finished and held out a hand for Sora to take. He took it and Tron pulled him into a hug, making Sora feel slightly awkward.

"Isn't this what users do when they're sorry to say goodbye?" Tron asked.

"Uh…it's a first for me," Sora admitted sheepishly.

"Gwarsh, Tron, it's like a promise that we'll meet again real soon!" Goofy explained.

"Okay. Well then…" Tron walked over and gave everyone else a hug.

"I promise," he said as he slowly backed away.

"Hey, where're you going?" Misty asked.

Tron merely waved before jumping into the core where the MCP was deleted. The whole group watched in shock as Tron descended deeper and deeper into the core.

"Tron…" said Sora sadly.

**XXXX**

Meanwhile, back in Hollow Bastion, several rumblings occur and several systems are restored and Yuffie ran into the computer room.

"Things are settling down in town! The only Heartless left anywhere are the local variety! And it looks like there are fewer than before!" Yuffie exclaimed ecstatically.

"Now if we could just all of them back in one piece…" Aerith began but as though on cue, the beam immediately released the group.

"You're here!"

"Welcome back!"

Ash and Sora nod sadly before asking how the town was. The two girls confirmed that everything was back to normal and that there was no trace of the MCP either. Yuffie noticed the groups sad faces and demanded what happened.

They explained what had happened inside Tron's world and when they finished, an alarm sounds and everyone begins to panic but it stops just as quickly.

"Greetings, friends. System is up and ready for User input."

"Tron!" Everyone gasped.

"Stay in touch," said Tron.

"Yeah!" Sora replied eagerly as Donald ran up to the keyboard and starting typing, causing Tron to proclaim that it tickled.

Ash and Sora both sported evil grins as they began typing.

"I think Tron's been hanging around with those guys too much," Yuffie whispered to Aerith and they both giggled.

"W-wait, just a moment. I want to show you something I dug up from the system archives," said Tron amidst giggling. Sora and Ash stopped typing and listened intently, "You can see the town when it was first built."

**XXXX**

Meanwhile, outside the Restoration Site, Cloud looks up at the sky and sees several beams of light shooting upward while Leon says, "That's right, I remember now…"

Magical shards of light fall down around the city. Cid and Merlin come outside to witness it.

"Just like the old days..." Cid muttered.

"Hmm... I'd be fascinated to ascertain as to when the town got such a dreadful name as Hollow Bastion!" said Merlin.

**XXXX**

The Keyblade bearers and their friends come out to the postern to watch the beams of light shoot up.

"You know, this town had another name once," Aerith said.

"Really, what is it?" Ash asked.

"Radiant Garden."

Everyone smiled and gazed up at the lights.


	11. Operation: Invasion

**I'm incredibly sorry that this came so late but I was running dry on ideas and I had so much stuff I had to do. Still, I'm back and I'm hoping I'll be able to update faster as time goes on.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts or Pokemon or the OCs from this story. Those rights belong to Nomura, Tajiri and Yue respectively. (I still wish I did own some part of the characters in this story).**

**XXXX = Page Break**

**XXXX**

On the gummi ship, everyone was sitting quietly contemplating what to do next while shooting furtive glances at Ash after the aura outburst that he had in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden. Chip and Dale began to yell something about Twilight Town snapped them all out of their thoughts. So everyone just watched as they ranted.

"What's that big…thing?" Ash asked pointing to the possible world in front of them once everyone took notice of what the two chipmunks were talking about.

"Maybe that's the source of the strange reading we picked up before," Dale reasoned.

"And there's something funny about Twilight Town, I'm seeing TWO of them!" Chip exclaimed. Both chipmunks informed them of the strong energy readings near the town and the seven of them agreed to go check it out.

**XXXX**

"Gwarsh, I think we're almost there," said Goofy. Everyone turned to face him with looks of bemusement on all of their faces. "Aren't we here because of the picture?" he asked. Everyone remained silent while Goofy sweatdropped and showed them the picture.

"Yeah! Goofy's right!" Donald exclaimed stating the obvious.

"Let's go find this mansion!" Ash exclaimed, dragging Misty off.

"Ash, you do realize that you're going the wrong way right?" Sora and Pikachu asked in unison. Kairi, Donald, and Goofy snickered while Ash blushed and Misty muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'terrible navigation skills'.

The group final smothers its laughter before running off to the mansion. When they got there, they saw Hayner, Pence, and Olette on the ground, clearly unconscious. Sora runs over to them to make sure that they were okay before asking for an explanation.

"We came here looking for Riku, then those white things attacked us," said Hayner as he got to his feet.

"How do you guys know Riku?" Sora and Kairi demanded in mad desperation.

"Here's what happened," Pence began as he and Olette got to their feet.

**Flashback: **

_Hayner, Pence, and Olette were sitting up on the clock tower chatting happily but still a little disappointed that the ice cream shop was closed._

_Suddenly, a portal of darkness appeared and a boy in a black coat wearing a blindfold joined them._

"_Hey, what are you doing here?" Hayner demanded, jumping from his spot._

"_Hayner, don't you have any manners?" Olette chided while Pence and the boy sweatdropped. _

"_I'm Pence, nice to meet you," Pence greeted, offering his hand, which the other boy shook while muttering his name: Riku. _

"_Riku! You know, Sora and Kairi have been looking everywhere for you," said Olette, overhearing Pence and Riku's conversation. _

"_Hm…if you happen to see them again, tell them that they will be able to find me at the stronghold," Riku smirked as he pulled out four sea-salt ice cream bars before passing them along to the Twilight Town residents. He'd always carry them in case DIZ had one of his whiny baby moments and sea-salt ice cream was the only way to get him back in his right mind. Plus it tasted really good!_

_After the quartet descended the tower, Pence and Olette insisted to show Riku around Twilight Town. The day cultivated in a running Seifer and Hayner screaming bloody murder after their embarrassing defeats at Riku's hand._

_After the two matches, Pence noticed that Riku had vanished and was being interrogated by hordes of girls demanded where he was._

**End of Flashback:**

"Typical Riku," Sora muttered, rolling his eyes while the other Keyblade wielders plus Pikachu, Donald, and Goofy were roaring with laughter. Riku could charm any girl he wanted without even trying; he just had to show off to get the fangirls after him.

"You didn't have to go and do that though," Kairi began seriously but Hayner cut him off.

"Of course we did, Riku's our friend too, you know!"

"That, and he dominated Seifer. How could we not like him?" Pence exclaimed while Olette giggled shyly as she thought 'naughty' things about Riku that are betting left unsaid due to the rating of this Fanfiction.

"You know, we'd never thought of it that way before," Ash mused.

"Word is, this mansion gets a lot of really strange visitors," said Hayner.

"What kind of visitors?" Misty asked curiously while the Twilight Town trio shrugged.

"We're not entirely sure, but I get the feeling that this mansion might be a gateway to some sort of 'alternate Twilight Town'," Pence explained.

"What do you mean by 'alternate Twilight Town'?" Sora asked.

"Hey, Goofy, do you think we could see that crystal of yours?" Pence asked. Goofy nodded before taking the pouch and crystal out of his pocket and handing them over to the Twilight Town trio while everyone stared at them curiously.

"I made that pouch myself and I still have it. So there shouldn't be two of them here." Olette concluded after looking through the pouch and crystal.

"And this is the trophy Seifer gave you. You left it behind, remember?" Hayner said, holding the four-crystal trophy.

"Same with the crystals—red, blue, yellow, and green—only one of each color! But you've got your own!" Pence exclaimed.

"So, where'd you get it?" Hayner asked offhandedly while Sora thought for a second but Goofy beat him to the punch; he recalled that the pouch was from the King before Ash took over and explained that when he gave them the munny for the train ride, he gave them the crystal too. Pence then asked where the King got it.

"See? There's gotta be another town out there like this one. That would explain how the King got that pouch and the crystal. Everything makes sense," Hayner summarized while everyone exchanged a look of confusion before Sora said, "It does?"

"That other town must be where whatever's missing here went!"

"Like Riku." Olette added.

"I get it!" Sora exclaimed before noticing more dusk nobodies appearing before King Mickey swooped down and sliced them.

"Watch out!" he warned as they all summoned their weapons and went to battle.

Misty and Kairi discovered their special tier 1 command style: Kairi's was Light Pulse while Misty's was Aqua Bloom. Meanwhile, Sora pulled in the nobodies with Magnet Splash while Ash would take them out with Thunder or aura pulses.

Once the nobodies were defeated, Mickey spoke: "I got somethin' to tell ya. I found out where Ansem is—Ansem the wise! The real Ansem! He snuck into Organization XIII's stronghold!"

"And I think we've figured out where Riku is! I'm pretty sure we're right." Kairi replied.

"But why'd you all come here?" Mickey asked.

"Someone gave us a clue," Sora replied.

"Who?" Mickey asked curiously.

"Well, Your Majesty, Sora thinks it might have been Riku himself," Misty replied.

"It's just a feeling I had," Sora hastily added.

"Well, if that's what ya think, then it's probably right." Mickey replied vaguely.

"You mean Riku's okay!" Sora exclaimed.

"If that's what ya think…" Mickey replied, his voice trailing off.

Sora crossed his arms before saying, "I've waited long enough, Your Majesty! Tell me what you know!"

"It's not for me to say," said Mickey.

"But Your Majesty! Why?" Kairi asked, frowning.

"I don't wanna break my promise."

"You made a promise to Riku? So he's okay! I can see him again!" Sora and Kairi exclaim while Mickey covered his mouth, feeling guilty.

"That's it!" Pence said suddenly.

"Your Majesty? You got the pouch with the crystal from Riku, didn't you? And you promised not to tell, right?" Olette asked.

"Gosh, guys," said Mickey, looking embarrassed, thankfully, Donald came to the rescue by saying, "That's enough!"

"Yeah, let's go," said Ash, facing the mansion.

Once everyone was inside, Mickey said that there was supposed to be a computer nearby. Pence voiced his thoughts about the possibility of that computer being connected to the other Twilight Town. Mickey said it was possible and added that there might be a way into the Realm of Darkness there.

Sora and Kairi accused Mickey of knowing that because of Riku. Mickey practically begged the two islanders to stop because of his promise causing Sora to feel smug.

Donald reprimanded the duo like a mother to her children to which they both looked sheepish and apologized.

Ash and Misty watched on with amused smirks on their faces before making their way through the library and into the computer room.

"There it is!" Mickey exclaimed.

"We found it!" Ash called while Misty wondered how it worked.

Pence offered to take control before he sat down and started pressing seemingly random keys. They almost had the information but were hindered by a password.

"Do you know what the password might be?" Pence asked while Ash thought.

"Well, we have the photo and the salty-sweet ice cream bar," said Ash slowly.

"That it! Ansem the Wise loved ice cream!" Mickey exclaimed.

"What would have happened if we tried that on Xehanort's heartless?" Misty muttered to Kairi who had to stifle her giggles in order to not be heard.

"Okay, what's the name of the flavor?" Pence asked.

Everyone thought for a second before Ash replied saying: "Sea-Salt ice cream."

Pence typed in the code and said, "It worked!"

Then, they all notice an odd machine near the wall buzzes to life and Misty declared that they should get going.

"Say hi to Riku," said Olette shyly.

"You bet," Sora agreed, clearly missing the blush on Olette's face.

The group of eight stepped onto the machine before being turned into data. They reemerge in the seemingly same room. They all voice whether they are in the same place before Pikachu points out the destroyed computer. Ash and Sora see Rallen and Roxas destroying the machine with their Keyblades.

"This is the other Twilight Town…Roxas' Twilight Town."

"_Oh the good old days_," Roxas thought from inside Sora while Rallen did the same from inside Ash.

"There's gotta be an entrance into the dark realm somewhere. Let's split up." Mickey suggested before running off to the basement hall. The group reached the same hall before noticing a black and green portal of light.

"There…" Sora muttered.

"This is it," Ash added quietly before stepping into a new area: it was completely blue and clearly had nothing within.

"What is this place?" Misty asked, looking around.

"Which way should we go?" Pikachu asked.

"Riku!" Sora shouted into the oblivion.

Suddenly nobodies surround them. They drop into a fighting stance before running off to face them but they just keep coming back. At this point, they hear a voice warning them to keep moving otherwise, the darkness would overtake them. They turn to see Axel drop down and kill off a few nobodies with his chakrams.

"Why?"

"Don't ask, just do it!" Axel retorted before being sprung by more nobodies. Sora and Ash ran over and killed them. They then made sure Axel was okay before nobodies appeared. Sora shouted at them to leave them alone. Axel sweatdropped at his antics but took it into stride before all of them teamed up to kill off the remaining nobodies.

"I think I liked it better when they were on my side," said Axel dryly.

"Feeling a little…regret?" Sora asked, having driven into limit form.

"Nah…I can handle these punks, heh, watch this," he taunted as he jumped into the air and let lose several columns of fire while yelling off an insane battle cry.

"Whoa!" Ash exclaimed, looking around to see that the nobodies were gone.

Ash turned to face Sora who was staring at Axel in shock before dumbly saying, "You're…fading away."

"Well, that's what happens when you put your whole 'being' into an attack," said Axel snorting before saying, "Not that nobodies actually HAVE beings, right?"

"Axel, what were you trying to do?" Sora asked.

"I wanted to see Roxas and Rallen," said Axel and the boys felt a surge of emotion that was clearly not their own.

"They…were the only ones I liked. They made me feel…like I had a heart…it's kinda…funny…you two make me feel…the same…" Axel went silent before summoning another portal before vanishing.

Ash and Sora felt sadness inside them, not just their own but those of Roxas and Rallen as well.

As for Kairi, Sora had a feeling that Kairi had forgiven Axel; after all, she wasn't left behind.

"You okay?" Misty and Kairi asked.

The boys nodded but the girls gave them both hugs before Donald urged them to get going through the portal.

Ash stayed behind as he noticed a fragment of Axel's black coat lingered and before glowing. Ash summoned his Keyblade and immediately sealed the keyhole.

"Ash, hurry up!" Misty called.

"I'm coming!" Ash shouted as he ran to catch up to them.

**XXXX**

Meanwhile, Xemnas, Xigbar, Saix, and Luxord have a meeting in the Organization's meeting room **(A/N: That room in 358/2 Days where Xion and Roxas where first introduced.)**

"Seems like we're getting a lot more free seats. Axel put on a great show, but still…He just went and died," said Xigbar.

"Maybe he was satisfied," said Luxord. At the other members' stares he explained, "Maybe he got something from putting his life on the line."

"Hey, we don't exist! What life is there to put on the line? That goes against the rules of gambling!" Xigbar exclaimed while Saix sweatdropped.

"Indeed, Axel put something that didn't exist on the line…and probably won. Obviously a cheater," said Luxord while Xemnas snorted.

Saix stared at the floor before scornfully saying, "It doesn't matter. All he got was nothingness. Axel couldn't stand living without a heart and was destroyed by getting close to one. He was weak."

"But…" Xemnas began. Saix looked up at the superior. "Some things awaken thorugh weakness. You see, Axel touched Sora and Ash's hearts. When he was with them…perhaps they awakened too." Xemnas finished by staring at Roxas' s empty seat.

**XXXX**

Axel found himself at the feet of a girl. He sat up before looking around before saying, "I thought I was dead?"

"You were dead but the feelings of Me, Roxas, Rallen, and _her _managed to save you, Axel," Luna replied.

"L-Luna, is that really you?" Axel asked in a rare moment of disbelief.

"Yes Lea, it's me," Luna replied, tears welling up in her eyes as she lunged at him and grabbed him in a near death grip.


	12. Sora vs Mysterious Figures

**I apologize for updating so late! I've been really busy with stuff and too much happened too fast. I sweat that I will get the rest of the story done faster than this chapter came so long as you guys continue to show interest! Anyway, I actually had a few ideas about how to write this chapter and I had to wrestle with it for a while but in the end, I finally came up with something halfway decent so I stuck with it. I hope you guys like it!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokemon or Kingdom Hearts. Those belong to Game Freak and Square Enix respectively. **

The group stepped through the portal and found themselves in a dark alleyway. A few seconds later, King Mickey appeared right next to him.

"Where'd you come from?" Pikachu demanded, only to get silence as his answer.

"Axel said the remainder of the Organization is up there," Sora pointed to the seemingly floating castle.

"Right, well be better find a way to get into that castle," said Mickey. The group nodded as they watched the King run off to do who knows what.

Everyone fought the neoshadows that appeared throughout their journey through the dark city.

**XXXX**

Everyone passed through the city that had a ridiculously tall skyscraper and suddenly everyone but Sora and Ash gasped.

"Guys!" Kairi called.

Ash and Sora turned around to the rest of them surrounded and worst was that Pikachu was being held hostage.

As Ash fought to rescue Pikachu, Sora sensed something. "Huh?"

He glanced behind him to see two corridors of darkness appear and two figures wearing the Organization XIII robes appeared. They both summoned Keyblades and ran at Sora who blocked both of them. One of them had Oathkeeper while the other had Oblivion.

The pair transported the brunette to his station of awakening where he fought them both. Sora blocked the combos with a well-timed Reflega shield before fighting back briefly.

They sent pillars of light back at him and Sora had to dodge roll to get away. They both rode the light towards him where they slowly moved and Sora timed his slash just right, allowing him to steal his foes' weapons and fight back with a vengeance.

The pair, despite their group dynamics, didn't stand a chance when Sora went berserk so they called in their final offensive. They both moved towards the sky and created the same colored clouds that Sora created every time he sealed a keyhole before hurling several balls of light at him.

"Come on, that's not even fair," Sora complained as he got hit multiple times, leaving him panting.

He spun around, hoping to catch one of them off guard before grabbing the unfortunate wielder of Oblivion and hurling it at the Oathkeeper user.

Sora jumped up and froze the figure with one last Blizzaga, ending the battle.

"Who…who are you!" Sora demanded of the pair.

"Someone…you should know very well," said the figure.

"You can't be…Riku!" Sora exclaimed.

The figure sweat dropped. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that Sora was in love with Riku.

"I'm not in love with Riku! And I'm not gay!" Sora whined.

"I defeated a Riku once," the figure muttered.

"You WHAT!" Sora gasped as the figure lunged, the blade scratched at the ground as the other figure lunged from the other side.

"Tell me, tell me why he picked you?" the figure commanded. Sora sidestepped both attacks before blocking both swings. The figures jumped and tried to attack together but Sora jumped, spinning his Keyblade at same time, causing the two to back off briefly.

The two figures jumped and tried to renew their onslaught but Sora turned himself upside down and block both attacks before landing.

"I see, that's why," one figure said to the other who remained silent as they continued to float there.

They both landed and continued to attack but Sora deftly sidestepped the assault before blocking both of smashes with his Keyblade.

Eventually, the Oblivion user managed to knock Sora's Keyblade at of his hand and before he could reach it the Oathkeeper user pinned it down while the Oblivion Keyblade was pointed as Sora's face.

Sora reached out hopelessly for the blade before realizing he could summon the stupid thing and he did so before slashing both figures in one blow.

Both hoods fell and Sora's eyes widened when he saw who they were. One was a girl who looked a lot like Kairi, the only difference was the hair; it was black as opposed to Kairi's dark red. Sora turned his attention to the other face and saw none other than Roxas standing before him but he was looking towards the Kairi look-alike.

She slowly got to her feet, glanced at Sora and shook her head at Roxas before stepping into him. Sora watched on with amazement as Roxas glowed a sky blue before smiling and turning to Sora.

"Roxas, what the hell are you doing here and in the Organization clothes?" Sora demanded.

"I'm the last bit of Roxas' power that was left behind when he fused with you, Sora," the Roxas remnant replied before glancing at Sora appraisingly.

"Take it, you've impressed me beyond all belief," said Roxas remnant as he conjured two white orbs and gave one to Sora and the other to an unsuspecting Ash Ketchum.

"You make a good other," said Roxas remnant softly as the pair faded into the light.

**XXXX**

Suddenly Sora sees Roxas slowly getting to his feet. The second he does so, they see a man in a black coat walk appear out of a corridor of darkness and stride towards the blond hair boy.

"Do you want to know?" the figure asked. Roxas looked at his feet.

The man conjured the word 'Sora'.

"You feel nothing. You can feel nothing. Do you want a meaning? I can give you purpose," he rearranged the letters to create a new name: Roxas.

"Roxas," Roxas muttered.

"That's right. The new you," Sora could see Xemnas' face under the hood.

**XXXX**

"Finally woken up?" a voice called.

"Axel!" Roxas gasped. "Nope, maybe you're going to sleep. Soon I won't even be able to talk to your consciousness like this."

Roxas looked away, thinking about something, "I…" he began. "I'm going back to the way I was."

"I thought about it a lot and Namine said the same thing," said Axel, sitting down.

"Roxas," Roxas looked up. "You have a heart, don't you? While Namine and I…we don't really have hearts, do we?"

"I…I don't know either," Roxas admitted.

"I guess not," Axel sighed.

"But, the heart is not something you can see," Roxas began, "I've started wondering if it is something you can't feel either…if so, then…nah, never mind."

"Hm? What are you getting at?" Axel asked curiously.

"I'm sure Sora can find the answer, after all, he's me," said Roxas. Sora felt rather flattered as he watched the conversation between the two members of the Organization.

"Yep, that's true," Axel smirked.

"Thanks, Roxas," Sora muttered.

Axel handed Roxas a bar of sea-salt ice cream and they both began to eat. "This takes me back. Do you remember? We met the day you got your new name. And then we watched the sunset from up here.

"Yeah, this is where I came from. Everyone…Hayner, Pence, Olette…I hope they're okay," said Roxas.

"You should go see them again; looking for you answer," Axel suggested.

"Yeah…So…I have to go. Sora's waiting for me," said Roxas.

"Yeah, I guess he is," said Axel. "This ice cream is really salty!"

Later the light started to glow once more, "See you later, Axel," Roxas whispered.

"See ya, partner," Axel whispered as everything turned white.

Sora opened his eyes and saw that all of his friends were standing before him, waiting expectantly.

"What just happened?" Sora asked slowly.

"We don't know, you just disappeared then we had to fight a bunch of nobodies," Ash replied.

"It was like fighting all those heartless back at Hollow Bastion all over again!" Pikachu exclaimed. Everyone chuckled at the mouse.

"Those guys, they said they…defeated Riku," said Sora.

"Who said that?" Ash asked, looking confused.

"That guy, in the black coat!"

"Sora, no one could defeat Riku, except you on rare occassions," said Kairi, giggling at him.

Sora frowned before Donald commented idly that he looked tired and suggested they get some rest. Sora disagreed and Ash took this as his cue to usher everyone away.

Sora looked up at the sky before Ash's voice rang to him and he ran off to join them…

**You guys know what to do. If this chapter is short, then I'm sorry. I'll try to make the the rest of the chapters longer and much better than this one was. I hope you guys liked how I went about doing the Roxas-Sora cutscene and I added an extra-bit from Final Mix.**


	13. Why we don't like Sharpshooters

**I'm sorry I've been away. I've been out of town and I've got family over so it's been pretty crazy. Anyway, you guys know the drill. Read, maybe review, live your lives and embrace your dreams.**

**Disclaimer: I'm sure you guys know I don't own Pokemon…or Kingdom Hearts or any characters you may recognize. **

**XXXX = **Page Break.

When everyone arrived in the next area, they finally found Mickey. How the hell he didn't notice Roxas come and attack Sora was anyone's guess…

"How the hell does that castle float despite it weighing hundreds of tons?" Pikachu mused but his thoughts fell on deaf ears…namely Donald's.

"Dead end?" Donald asked, gesturing to the lack of a pathway to the floating castle where the remainder of the Organization resided.

"There's gotta be a way up somewhere," Mickey reasoned.

Suddenly, Ash had an epiphany. He thought about whispering it like a creepy stalker while mentioning his mother but thought better of it, lest he be on the receiving end of Misty's mallet.

Ash summoned his Keyblade and pointed towards the creepy floating castle. A beam of light radiated from the Keyblade, creating a light blue pathway for which they could travel.

As they walked up the path, they heard a pair of screams and the boys turned around to see Saix grab Misty and Kairi before vanishing.

Ash and Sora swore loudly as they lunged but Saix had disappeared.

Pikachu had started shooting bolts while yelling profanities like, "Get back here you cowardly *********!"

Saix didn't care as he got what he wanted and vanished. Everyone else, Mickey included, stared at Pikachu.

"What!" Pikachu growled, cheeks sparking angrily. Everyone turned away as they continued up the castle.

**XXXX**

Meanwhile, Saix dropped the duo off in a large dungeon-like place complete with air conditioning and private bathrooms. Hooray!

The girls' scrutiny of the cell was short-lived as they saw Saix standing from the other side of the bars with a strange look in his eyes. It was almost like…lust…almost.

"Why do you want us so badly?" Kairi demanded, her grip tightening on her Keyblade.

"You are the fires that feed Ash and Sora's anger," Saix replied coolly before vanishing into the darkness. A few seconds later, the girls heard barking and spun around to see a familiar dog wag its tail at them.

"What are you doing here?" Kairi asked, stroking its head.

"Kairi, I don't know about you but I'm busting out of this place," Misty told her, summoning her Keyblade and smashing it into the bars, but only to be sent flying into a wall.

"I guess that won't work, let's try magic," Kairi suggested, casting multiple Blizzaga spells and activating her Diamond Dust command style and continued her frozen assault, allowing her to unlock one of her tier two command styles: Blissful Bloom. Kairi, with Misty joining in, continued her assault but even after the powerful tier two finisher the bars had shown no sign of damage; They could have blown the damn bars up for all the good it would do.

"I think we should call it a day," Misty sighed, collapsing on the floor.

"Yeah, might as well. It wouldn't do try to break out when we're tired as hell," Kairi agreed as they headed to their abnormally comfortable beds and allowed sleep to take them to wherever sleep takes people.

**XXXX**

"I've got a feeling we're about to be attacked," Mickey said as they kept going.

"Dammit, Your Majesty, don't jinx it!" Ash protested. As though on cue, several nobodies appeared and attacked them. Sora and Ash quickly dispelled them before headed towards what would undoubtedly be called "the universe's largest elevator".

"Why does the Organization need such large elevators. It's not like they have a lot of members," Sora mused as they listened to seemingly random elevator music before reaching the next point in their so-called invasion.

"Probably because of the nobodies," Ash shrugged as they stepped off the elevator and into Twilight's View.

Immediately upon arrival, Sora noticed the Moogle for the first time and decided to buy some stuff.

"How much munny have you guys got?" Sora called to the others, save for Mickey because he was bankrupt, despite being a king.

"I don't even know," Ash replied, pulling his bag out from his backpack. "A crap load, I guess." Everyone, save for Mickey, was the same so they blew their munny on potions, armor and other seemingly random stuff.

"That's better," Ash sighed as his munny bag felt lighter. He was wondering when he'd get a chance to use it and now he had though he wondered why the Moogle kept calling him 'kupo'.

**XXXX**

Neither girl could sleep; they just needed to lie down briefly before they hopped to their feet and started their renewed assault. About halfway in Misty noticed a portal of darkness and shy-looking blonde hair girl standing on the edge of it.

"This way!" she encouraged the girls; Kairi had noticed that Misty had stopped her assault and found out why.

"Who—?" Kairi began.

"Believe in yourselves! C'mon! Hurry!" Naminé gestured towards the portal. Both girls jogged toward her with Pluto trailing behind them, taking her proffered hands before stepping through and vanishing, the hands shining with light.

**XXXX**

The three girls ran down the pathway, hoping to reunite with Sora and Ash. Suddenly, Naminé's form shook.

"Naminé, there you are." Saix reappeared before them, two berserker nobodies on either side.

"Naminé?" Kairi repeated before looking at the blonde.

"Girls, I'm afraid leaving is not an option." He continued by saying, "I'll take you to see your friends."

The girls recoiled and Saix raised an eyebrow. "You don't want that?" Saix asked skeptically.

"We do, more than anything. But not with you around!" Kairi replied as the three girls assumed a fighting stance.

"If I had a heart, this is where I would die of laughter," Saix mused.

_It would make our lives easier if you just killed yourselves _Misty thought darkly.

Just then, they heard the sound of a sword. They turned around to see the Berserkers fall to the ground and disappear. Their vanquisher was a figure in a black cloak holding a wing-like Keyblade.

"You can take it from here, Riku," said Naminé

"Riku!" Kairi echoed as she stared at the cloaked figure who dismissed his Keyblade and shot a black ball of fire at Saix, who jumped backwards.

The savior then grabbed the blue-haired Organization member and slammed him against the wall. However, Saïx just smiled as he put his hand to the wall, created a portal, and he and escaped through it.

Just as the figure started to enter, Kairi ran up to them and called, "Wait!"

He stopped and turned around as Pluto ran up to him.

He backed away from him, but he stayed. The girls, save for Naminé, who has mysteriously disappeared, walked up to them.

"Riku…you're really here…" Kairi said as she took off the hooded figure's hood, revealing the figure of Ansem, no, Xehanort's heartless, who looked away from her. Still, she didn't seem frightened as she caressed his face.

**XXXX**

Not wasting any time, Sora, Ash, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pikachu rushed into the Hall of Empty Melodies. There they found Saix staring at them.

"You've done well, you two," he said to the boys.

"Where're Kairi and Misty!" Ash shouted.

"Who knows, I expect they're catching up with their friend from the darkness," said Saix.

"What do you mean?" Sora snapped while Mickey summoned his Keyblade.

"It means she doesn't need you anymore," he replied easily.

"We're supposed to believe that?" Mickey scoffed.

"Well, you don't have to, but you can believe this; Organization XIII has no further use for any of you. Just look there," he pointed to a heart-shaped moon.

"Our Kingdom Hearts, thanks to you, we've collected countless hearts; can you hear their euphoria? Now all they need is one more helping from the Keyblade bearer!" Mickey's eyes flash as he went back to the first time he saw Kingdom Hearts. He remembered a boy in a mask, someone who looked like Roxas, a woman with blue hair fought alongside him against the Roxas-look alike. A blinding explosion, then…nothing.

Saix snapped his fingers as hoards of Heartless appeared through the wall. Mickey slayed a few of them before leaving the scene.

"Would it kill you to stay for once?" Pikachu muttered as the five stood behind each other, back to back, with Pikachu standing in front of Ash.

"We've gotta fight!" Donald shouted.

"But…Kingdom Hearts," Sora said desperately as Ash stared up at the heart-shaped moon with wonder in his eyes.

"Sora!" "Ash!" They heard two girls scream. They spun around to see Kairi and Misty on a higher level.

"Girls!" the boys shouted but were quickly pounced by several shadow heartless.

The girls gasped, held hands and jumped down from the balcony onto the upper level of the same room. They resumed running to help their comrades, but Shadows overtook them from behind, catching them off guard. Just then, a Keyblade sailed through the Shadows and obliterated them. 'Ansem' came over and helped the two up.

"Take it," he told her, shoving a red silken Keychain that connected to a paopu fruit token. Kairi took it, summoned her Keyblade, and changed keychains. The Keyblade now looked round and curvaceous to the point of appearing non-dangerous. One side of the hilt was formed in the shape of a breaking ocean wave, while the other was formed into a beige vine of sand that wrapped around the shaft, which was colored to resemble a sunset. The vine connected to a bouquet of colorful flowers, which formed the teeth of the Keyblade.

Suddenly, several shadows lunged at them but Kairi and Misty slashed through all of them, eyes closed like an awesome swordsperson would.

'Ansem' was mildly impressed as he watched the girls fight. "C'mon, we all know Sora and Ash are completely hopeless without us," Misty smirked as her fellow comrades charged into battle.

Saïx watched from above yet another ledge. Just then, something caught his eye. On a balcony opposite him. Maleficent and Pete stood.

"Well, well. Will the intrusions never end?" Saïx chuckled as he disappeared into a dark portal.

"Why, Pete…this castle is perfect," Maleficent applauded him. "Perhaps we should…acquire it."

"Well, the setup is…kinda nice, I guess, but…what about all the Heartless?" Pete asked.

"Yeah, this in-between world is way too close to the darkness!" he added. "They won't listen to us here!" he finished.

"Once again, you underestimate me, Pete," Maleficent told them.

**XXXX**

Elsewhere in the castle, Mickey ran through the castle, eliminating any Heartless and Nobody who got in his way and stealing the occasional munny or two. After 3 minutes of this, he found DiZ on the floor. Mickey helped him out and once the threat dispelled, he helped DiZ, who had an odd-looking device, stand up. DiZ then reached for his face, and stripped off the red sash, revealing that he was…an old friend.

"It's been too long, my friend," he said.

"Ansem the Wise," Mickey said, sounding like a father reprimanding a child. "Why didn't you come to me before things got so bad?" he asked sharply.

"Xemnas, the Organization's superior, is the nobody of Xehanort, my foremost apprentice," He answered. "The burden was mine to bear."

"Is that all?" Mickey asked.

Ansem simply turned to look at Kingdom Hearts.

"I won't deny there was more," Ansem continued. "I was…obsessed with thoughts of revenge. My apprentices stole everything precious to me—my research and my pride."

"I can't help you with revenge," Mickey told him.

"I know. Riku's told me a thousand times," he replied, sounding tired.

"Where is he?" Mickey asked.

"He must be with his friends by now," Ansem replied. He paused for a moment and then continued. "He was a great help to me. I found him wandering the darkness, after you and they lost track of each other."

"Well, we didn't lose each other exactly," Mickey admitted. "Riku left…well, because Xehanort's Heartless was still inside his heart, troubling him. He sure must've been suffering." Mickey finished, looking saddened. "What I don't understand is why he looks like that now, when he's still Riku at heart. I also don't understand how Ash and his friends were dragged into this."

"I am to blame," Ansem apologized. "When I met him the first time, Riku still had the appearance of a boy. Probably because he had such a strong heart. I asked them to find a young man named Roxas from Organization XIII, and bring him to me. When I told them it would help Sora awaken from his slumber, Riku left without a word. He fought Roxas, and I can only surmise they lost that fight. Riku must have realized then: to fight in the realm of darkness, he would have to immerse himself in that same darkness. And when he did…you saw what became of him."

Ansem paused briefly before continuing. "When Riku brought Roxas back to me, the former was introducing himself…as Ansem. If that was what it took to awaken his friend, he was ready to live in darkness. Riku was the victim of my revenge. …Oh, how my heart ached. I could only laugh to hide my shame."

"I guess it must have been after that when we saw them again," Mickey surmised. "Riku said he wanted to help Sora…but he made me promise—promise that Sora wouldn't ever find out about what happened to him while he was out in the darkness. But there's still Ash…"

"Ash…I cannot say that I have any responsibility in his being here. He was most likely brought here by someone else. Someone who knew that Organization XIII would be tough and decided to bring in an unknown Keyblade wielder," Ansem guessed.

Ansem and Mickey stared into space for a few more seconds, and then the former turned back to his old friend." My friend, the time has come. I must make amends to these young people."

Ansem picked up the strange device he had and then walked inside the castle. Mickey followed him.

**XXXX**

"Get off me, you fatties," Ash muttered as he and Sora forced them off and got to their feet.

Ash and Sora watched on in confusion as Misty, Kairi, and another person fought off heartless; they had no idea who the last person was.

"What's going on!" Ash asked himself.

Before anyone could answer, a pink diamond-shaped 'bullet' landed on the ground near them. They looked up and saw a myriad of projectiles. They braced for themselves impact, but none of the bullets hit them; only the heartless were obliterated.

"Have you been a good boy?" a familiar voice called.

"Show yourselves!" Sora demanded.

Conceding, Xigbar did appear…on the elaborate ledge Saix stood a few minutes ago.

"Oh, it sounds like you haven't," he said, sounding disappointed. He then called. "Sora! Roxas! Ash! Rallen!"

"Rallen?" Ash mumbled, he knew full well what the hell Xigbar was calling him. Sora seemed to know too for he didn't say anything.

"You've really put Organization XIII in a pickle…" said Xigbar, eyeing the boys greedily. "I guess that must be why the Keyblade chose you. But MAN, did it pick a dud this time. You don't look like you're half the hero the others were."

"Are you done rambling?" Ash snapped, holding his Keyblade at the ready.

"Rambling? As if. All I'm trying to tell you, traitor, is that your time is up!" He summoned his arrow guns and cocked them. Xigbar jumped from his platform onto the station where the Keybladers stood.

"Here he comes!" Goofy warned as the two of them jumped down to the floor, stood up after, and smirked.

"You really shouldn't have betrayed us," Xigbar said as he spun his guns around and locked them together.

He then teleported himself to the top of a platform, took aim and fired.

Ash had a seemingly random urge to send out his Delibird and seeing as if he did it later, the delivery Pokemon would probably die.

Sora blocked and dodged bullets before sending them back and Ash sent out his Delibird. Pikachu stared at it briefly before hitching a ride and the pair started shooting thunderbolts and ice beams, forcing the sharpshooter to return to the surface. Though oddly enough, Xigbar seemed to have an addiction to standing upside down. Thankfully, Delibird chose this time to use Ice Beam, freezing the one-eyed man in a block of ice.

Xigbar quickly thawed and assumed his position upside. His now pissed off attitude led to faster shots being fired. Sora dodge rolled them while Ash guarded.

"R for reload," Xigbar said as he quickly reloaded his arrowguns; but not fast enough for the spiky-haired Keyblade wielder to high-jump and aerial dodge over to his spot and unleash a full air combo.

After that combo, Xigbar decided to step it up. He kept shooting and teleporting, making it difficult to tell where he might go next. It didn't help that he changed the field to suit, though thankfully no one fell through the missing pieces. However, Ash called back his Delibird for he didn't want the Pokemon dead because of some Organization XIII member with a strange accent.

As the battle reached its climax, Xigbar once again changed the field into a square. Donald and Goofy tried to attack but found that he was invincible. One shot each and both of them out for the count.

"Everybody run!" Sora shouted as he, Ash, and Pikachu started running in order to dodge the shots. They were doing well until Xigbar said, "Now, let's see how you dance!" He then sent a rain of bullets down at them and the trio kept running for their lives.

Once the barrage was over, Sora cast Curaga on Donald and Goofy while Ash attacked with several violent slashes, finishing the sharpshooter off.

Xigbar collapsed onto the ground, the remnants of the ice making his nose conjested. He pulled a pack of tissues from his pocket and started to blow. He threw the napkins off into the endless pit around the field.

Ash noticed four magic stones next to him. He picked one up and chucked one to Sora as Xigbar slowly got to his feet.

"Why did you call me Roxas?" Sora demanded.

Xigbar sniffled, trying to get rid of the mucus before saying, "Wouldn't you like to know." He vanished into the darkness, gone forever.

"Hey! Hold on!" Sora shouted.

"Sora! Ash! It's the girls!" Donald shouted as he pointed to the platform where the girls stood, celebrating their victory.

**What did you think? Anyway, if anyone can figure out where I got the idea for Ash to consider whispering his epiphany while mentioning his mom then...I'll be very impressed. I'm very interested to see what you guys think. If you guys can also figure where I got the 'embrace your dreams' phrase from, then...I have no idea. I'll call you out in the next chapter? I think that sounds good. **


	14. Of Gambler's and Berserkers

The Keyblade bearing warriors and their friends made their way up to where their female friends were waiting for them.

"Kairi, Misty, you were great!" Donald congratulated. Kairi flipped her hair and giggled while Misty smirked and said, "Well, what'd you expect?"

Ash and Misty watched as Kairi and Sora hugged each other in a seemingly romantic embrace that rivaled cliché soap operas.

"Wait, Ansem!" Sora shouted as the man who appeared to be Ansem paused. "I mean, Xehanort's Heartless," he corrected before continuing. "I never thought for a second I'd ever see _you _again." He paused for a moment while Ash wondered how long he had been standing there before they had noticed. "Just thinking about all the things you did makes me really mad but…you saved Kairi right?"

"And Misty!" Ash chimed.

"And Misty," Sora nodded, "We have to be grateful for that…thanks!"

Suddenly, Kairi ran up to the man, grabbing his wrist and desperately crying, "Riku! Don't go!" This prompted a look of shock from everyone.

"Huh?" Goofy and Pikachu said in unison.

"K-Kairi, what did you just say?" Sora asked, stunned.

"Riku," Kairi answered simply.

'Xehanort's Heartless' turned away before saying, "I'm no one; just a castaway from the darkness."

Kairi frowned and turned her head back to Sora, "Sora, come here! Say something to him!" Kairi pleaded.

Sora tilted his head, confused but agreed all the same. He walked over to the two of them and looked to Kairi.

She took the silver-haired man's in hers and took Sora's hand and put them together. "You'll understand," she murmured as Sora placed his hand on top of the man's.

Sora shot Kairi a quizzical look and she merely smiled at him, blue eyes shining brightly, "Close your eyes," she told him.

Sora looked back to the man curiously before doing as he was told.

Meanwhile, Ash, Misty, Pikachu, Donald and Goofy were watching the scene while eating popcorn.

"Who do you think that man is, Pikachu?" Ash asked, shoving several kernels into his already stuffed mouth.

Pikachu shrugged and stole several kernels from Ash bag while Misty muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Pig."

Suddenly, the room turned black yet everyone could see clearly. Sora slowly opened his eyes and saw his friend, Riku, standing there. He still wore the Organization XIII robes, and silver hair had gotten longer. Sora's eyes widened and as the vision faded away and Sora stared at him with a shocked face.

"Riku…it's Riku…Riku's here!" Sora fell to his knees, clutching his hand. Tears rolled down his face as he stared up at the man. "I looked for you!" he said, voice cracking slightly.

"Come on, Sora, you have to pull it together," said Riku encouragingly, his voice losing the deep tone it had possessed moments earlier.

"I looked everywhere for you!" Sora cried, grasping Riku's hand tighter.

"I didn't want you to find me," Riku muttered, feeling ashamed.

"But wasn't he the one who was helping us?" Ash asked.

"Huh?" Donald asked.

"Those clues we kept findin'," Goofy realized, "That musta been Riku."

Riku went on to explain that he was worried that they would never catch on. "Sora never did pick the brightest friends."

"Hey!" Ash, Donald, and Goofy scowled.

"Ash, admit it. You may be a great Pokémon trainer but you never were good at thinking," Pikachu stated drily.

Ash's scowl deepened as he and Pikachu argued while Misty had half a mind to whip out her 'Magic Mallet' and bash Riku with it but thought better of it; the mood was too sentimental to break.

Sora sweatdropped before turning back to Riku, "Why didn't you let me know you were okay?"

"I told you. I didn't want to be found. Not like this…" Riku looked at himself briefly before continuing, "I fought with Ansem—with Xehanort's heartless…when it invaded my heart and I won. But to use to power of darkness, I had to become Ansem myself."

"Does this mean you can't change back?" Kairi asked, concerned.

"This battle isn't over," Riku answered, "And until it is, I still need the power of darkness."

"Well then, let's finish it. You're still Riku no matter what," said Sora as he stood up. He looked to his friends called, "So how 'bout it? Think we handle won last rumble together? The King's waiting!"

"Yeah! Let's get going!" Donald replied as the group headed towards the next room.

Meanwhile, Mickey and Ansem the Wise find the closest edge to Kingdom Hearts.

"This spot should do," Ansem nodded as he set the device down.

"What's this gadget for?" Mickey asked, eying the machine curiously.

"It's a device to reclaim Kingdom Hearts and encode it as data," Ansem explained to the Keyblade Wielder.

"Not sure I get it," Mickey admitted.

Ansem the Wise chuckled, "I do not claim to know the outcome of this venture, either.

After all...Hearts are unpredictable."

He starts up the device, which shoots a steady beam at Kingdom Hearts, beginning the enconding process.

Meanwhile, Sora, Ash, and their friends find themselves in the Proof of Existence. It's a relatively small room when compared to some of the other areas in the world. The party noticed 14 markers, one for each member.

"Does anyone else get the feeling that this place feels like a graveyard?" Ash asked, looking at the markers.

"Actually, I kinda got that impression too," Misty and Pikachu admitted.

"It's not so much a graveyard as it is a…hallway of sorts…each one leads to a member's resting place."

They shrug and decide to enter one of the gravestones, leading the party to Havoc's divide.

"What's that?" Sora asked, looking at the beam of light aimed at Kingdom Hearts.

"It's the King and DiZ-I mean, Ansem the Wise. They must be higher up," Riku answered, "We better hurry."

Sora noded. They made to leave, but Luxord appeared, separating Sora and Ash from the rest of the group. He snapped his fingers and large cards rose and cover the rest of the party. The cards spun around them. Luxord snapped his fingers again, and the cards flew away, leaving Ash and Sora's friends missing.

"You!" they exclaimed.

" I'd rather we just skip the formalities," Luxord stated as the boys summoned their Keyblades and assumed a battle stance.

Luxord wasted no time in changing Sora into a die so Ash quickly dismissed his Keyblade, grabbed his friend and ran around the board while trying to dodge Luxord attacks.

_Ash, one thing you should know about Luxord is that he likes to manipulate time. You will have to use the cards to turn the tides into your favor _Rallen told him from within.

_But I've never gambled before _Ash mentally screamed.

_But I have and I will teach you _Rallen reassured him as Sora reverted from his dice form and lay in Ash's arms.

_Well, this is awkward _both boys thought. Luxord seized his chance, striking them both with his cards.

Ash threw Sora out of his arms and summoned his Keyblade. Sora landed on his butt, frowning while he brushed off some nonexistent dust before summoning his Keyblade and helping the Pokemon trainer beat the gambler.

When Rallen said he was good at gambling, it was understatement. Ash challenged Luxord every chance he got and ended up getting healed every time.

Luxord hid under the cards and shuffled them. Sora flipped them one by one and when he found Luxord's card, both boys rushed in to team up on him. Sora attacked while Ash continued to strike with Thundaga spells.

Luxord hid once again and Ash decided to save some time and use a Thundaga spell, destroying all the cards. Sora tried to get a strike in but was too slow.

Luxord hid one more time and both boys resorted to flipping cards, several of which exploding, causing minor burns.

Eventually, Luxord came out of hiding and began attacking them. Sora cast a Reflega spell, block and countering the damage while Ash jumped a slashed him several times from midair.

"Look who's on top of the game!" Luxord shouted, his voice echoing. The cards scattered all across the field while the two boys started running for their lives. They dodged all of Luxord's card throws and eventually found themselves playing a last gamble. Sora let Ash handle this and watched on in amazement as Ash stole Luxord's cards and skillfully threw them at the gambler, stunning him.

Sora rushed in for the final blow, ending the battle. "You play the game quite well."

Ash holds his Keyblade and ran at Luxord for a final blow. Luxord surrounded himself with cards. Ash slashed right through the cards, slicing them in half and striking Luxord.

"How could you Rallen...Roxas..." said Luxord, his breathing labored.

"That's SORA and ASH!" they snapped as Luxord faded away. The cards reappear and return their friends.

"You okay?" Kairi asked them.

"Yeah! No worries," Sora replied and then turned to door that led them there, "Let's keep moving."

They return to the previous room and noticed that another path started glowing. The path had a picture of a claymore on it.

"I can sense Saïx. He's using something to boost his power. If we can figure out his power source, we may be able to use it, too."

"Cool!" Ash grinned as they entered the pathway.

They entered Addled Impasse and find Saïx looking up through a large window at Kingdom Hearts. He smiled a creepy smile at them when they entered.

"Only you could have made it this far in one piece...Roxas… and Rallen," Saïx muttered, claymore in hand.

"That's getting really old!" Sora snapped. Donald, Goofy and Pikachu stand infront of the two of them.

"Yeah! They're Sora and Ash!" they snapped.

"Different name, same fate," Saïx muttered as his claymore quickly sharpened. He thrusted the weapon forward and a powerful gust of wind shot forward. Riku ran over to cover Kairi and Misty while Pikachu flew into Misty's arms. Suddenly, a barrier formed, blocking the four of them out.

"Are you kidding me? When do I get some action?" Pikachu muttered, clearly not pleased with the developments.

"Do you feel it, the moon's power?" He asked as they rushed forward. "Moon, shine down!" Saïx roared as he felt power flow through his veins, making him seemingly invincible.

Ash jumped as Saïx slammed the claymore into the ground, leaving a replica behind. Remembering what Riku had said earlier, Ash grinned and grabbed it, lighting his head on fire yet it didn't hurt. He moved towards the Luna Diviner smashing multiple times with blue haired man's weapon.

"I misjudged you," Saïx muttered as Sora dashed over, blocked his first strike and quickly slashed at him as much as he could, casting Reflega for more damage.

Sora saw Saïx about to go berserk and tried to get away but Saïx proved to be a quick enemy as he smashed Sora multiple times before taking aim at Ash.

Ash lured Saïx away from Sora and an unconscious Donald and Goofy. He blocked the oncoming projectile.

Ash noticed that Sora had one of the claymores as well and let Sora smash Saïx out of berserk before he went in and slammed him purely for the hell of it.

Sora attacked from one side, Ash from the other, leaving the Luna Diviner no opening for a blow until he felt his power come back.

"All shall be lost to you!" Saïx roared. The two Keyblade wielders exchanged and glance, turned the other way and ran for their lives.

Unfortunately, Saïx was faster and had quickly caught up to them before slamming each boy two times, sending them flying into the nearest wall.

Thankfully, the attack ended and Sora quickly cast a Curaga, healing his wounded party. Both Keyblade users rushed in to grab a claymore and slammed it into Saïx as fast and as hard as they could.

Ash had a feeling that the battle had ended when Sora struck Saïx with the claymore.

"A heart... if I had a heart..." Saïx muttered as he dropped his claymore, which crashed towards the window and looked up at Kingdom Hearts.

"Why…Kingdom Hearts…Where…is my heart?" Saïx reached out towards Kingdom Hearts as he fades away.

"I don't get it. Why's everybody been calling me Roxas?" Sora asked before adding, "I know he's my nobody and all that but…"

"Yeah, same here," Ash muttered.

"Don't forget, they was once a part of Organization XIII," Kairi reminded, Sora and Ash nodded in remembrance.

Riku felt that now was the best time to explain everything, "Xemnas was the one who found Roxas and Rallen." Everyone looked at him curiously, "They could use the Keyblade because they were your Nobodies. That's why Xemnas brought them into the Organization – But Roxas and Rallen betrayed them. After that I fought Roxas because I thought it would help you wake up. I lost, but the next time we met I made sure I was the stronger one.

"What happened to Rallen?" Ash wondered aloud.

"He agreed to come with us," Riku replied.

* * *

Riku, blindfolded, stood up and walked toward Roxas. He lifted the Oblivion Keyblade and struck it into the ground next to Roxas. The scene was silent for a moment before Roxas started moving, startling him. Roxas struggled, grabbing the Keyblade and pulling it out of the ground, slashing at Riku with lightning speed. Riku leapt away. Roxas got up and ran toward him with the Keyblade. Riku sent a Dark Firaga spell at Roxas, who slashes through it and continues his attack. Riku dodges once more.

"Why don't you quit?" Roxas demanded.

"Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that," Riku taunted.

"Huh? Get real! Look which one of us is winning," Roxas stated, clearly taken aback. He placed a hand near his mouth with an incredulous look on his face.

"So it's true. You really are his Nobody. Guess DiZ was right after all," Riku muttered.

"What are you talking about? I am me! Nobody else!" Roxas shouted as he threw his hand up and the Oathkeeper flashed into being. He rushed Riku and jumped into the air. Riku dodged again. Roxas swings around and slashes the Keyblade across his arm. Riku flew from Roxas's blow as he slumps, kneeling, to the ground.

"How many times do I have to beat you?" Roxas shouted.

"All right. You've left me with no other choice," Riku muttered.

"What?" Roxas asked, confused.

"I have to release the power in my heart—" Riku stood up, "The dark power that I've been holding back." Riku took off his blindfold and let it fall to the ground. "Even…if it changes me forever!"

He braced himself and cried out as he was lifted into the air. A dark gust of wind flew around his face as dark energy enveloped him. Roxas readied his Keyblades again. The smoke dissipated, revealing Ansem and his Heartless Guardian suspended in midair.

Ansem is garbed in the same black cloak. He vanished suddenly, surprising Roxas. Ansem reappeared just a foot away from his face. The Guardian's large muscular arm reached out and grabbed him by the chest. Fear laced the boy's face and he struggled to free himself as the arm lifted him into the air. His legs hang aimlessly and his movement is futile. He dropped his Keyblades and they disappear after clanging to the ground. Roxas stops moving.)

"I have accepted it," Ansem stated.

Later, Ansem stood over the motionless body of Roxas, staring at him. A dark portal appeared and he quickly hooded himself as DiZ enters. DiZ looked down at Roxas.

"He could feel Sora," Ansem stated.

"Oh, he told you how he 'felt,' did he?" DiZ scoffed, Ansem frowned under his hood, "Ridiculous. A Nobody cannot feel anything."

"If he had met Sora, things might have been different," Ansem muttered.

* * *

"Maybe I didn't need to fight him after all. I think they left the Organization because...they really wanted to meet you two," Riku mused.

"I'm glad we got to meet them too," Sora and Ash mused aloud as Riku walked away.

"All right. Let's go," Riku stated. Sora, Ash and their friends quickly followed, ready for the next challenge.


	15. Final Reunion

**I'm sorry that I took so long to update. Congratulations on tmp1114 for guessing the 'Embrace Your Dreams' idea. Anyway, we are coming to a close and as for a sequel, I'm sorry I haven't addressed this earlier but the likelihood that I will be writing a sequel is pretty low. If I change my mind it'll happen. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. P.S. Does anyone know a beta reader who is good at adding all types of humor? If you do, please tell me.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts and Pokemon and those belong to Square Enix and Game Freak respectively.**

The beam of light from Ansem's device starts to weaken, causing the machine to shake violently. Ansem began to chuckle which then escalated into full blown laughter. Mickey stared and thought that Ansem had lost his mind.

"I'm a fool," he chuckled. At Mickey's bewildered stare, he continued. "I've spent years studying the working of the heart yet it seems that I haven't learned a thing.

"What d'ya mean?" Mickey asked, confused.

"The process of encoding hearts is incalculable." Ansem paused to collect his thoughts, "The inhabitants of my Twilight Town were data created from real hearts. I was convinced that they would think and behave the way I had envisioned—but I couldn't have been more wrong." Ansem went into lecturing mode, "A heart is so much more than any system. I saw it when Roxas and Kairi crossed paths. I knew. But I was too stubborn to accept it." He sighed, "It's always the same. I try to wrap my mind around things my heart already knows, only to fail. While I was trying to bring Sora back, I had so many plans in store. But once Sora was an acting force, they fell apart. All my research amounted to nothing, compared with that one boy's heart."

As Ansem finished his speech/monologue, the device he held began to shake more violently than before and Mickey was the first to comment on this.

"Ansem, the machine!"

"All the more proof that hearts cannot be contained by data," Ansem lamented, "Run, my friend!" he advised. "It's going to self-destruct! And anything could happen!"

"But…" Mickey trailed off, looking dejected.

"Your Majesty!" A pair of voices called out and Mickey was greeted by the sight of his liege…er I mean…his allies…sorry his friends: The destiny Island trio, the Pokemon trio, and Donald and Goofy sprinting towards them. What a stupid thing to do if the machine is going to explode.

"Sora, Ash, the rest is up to the two of you. Roxas and Rallen, I doubt you can hear me but I am sorry," Ansem lamented. Little did he know that the two nobodies had heard him and for reasons known only to themselves willingly forgave them.

"Ansem!" Mickey pleaded, trying to stop the former researcher but Riku restrained him. "Riku," he said, looking at his…captor.

Riku shook his head, "His heart's decided; we can't change that."

As though intent to ruin what could have been a genuinely heartfelt moment in which Ansem meet his end in Mickey's arms, Xemnas appears from a portal of darkness.

"I was wondering…who would dare interfere with my Kingdom Hearts," Xemnas lamented. Actually it wasn't just Xemnas's Kingdom Hearts. Actually…Kingdom Hearts should belong to Roxas, Xion, Rallen and basically anyone who could wield a Keyblade because they did most of the work killing the damn heartless in the first place but that's for later. "And look—," he paused in what he thought was dramatic fashion but actually made him stupid. "Here you all are. How convenient for me."

"What a sicko," Pikachu muttered to Ash who had to stifle a snicker.

"Ansem the Wise…you look pathetic," Xemnas stated contemptuously.

"I know you are but what am I?" Pikachu whispered to Sora, who also had to stifle a laugh.

"Have your laugh. I deserve as much for failing to see you for the fool you are," Ansem shot back.

"Students do take after their teachers. Only a fool would be your apprentice," Xemnas sneered.

"Fool? Really? Is that the best they can come up with?" Pikachu asked himself and then said, "If Ansem's a fool. Does that mean Xemnas is a bigger fool?" Pikachu asked Kairi who stifled a giggle.

"After all, NONE of this would have happened without YOU!" Xemnas proclaimed loudly, trying to sound impressive. "You are the source of all Heartless. It was you research that inspired me to go further than you ever dared."

"Doesn't that inspire so much pride and confidence?" Pikachu snickered mockingly to Misty who struggled to suppress her smirk.

"I admit...my disregard brought chaos to more worlds than one," Ansem confessed and then demanded, "But what were YOU seeking? You erased me from the world, only to take my name and continue research better left forgotten... Is this the answer you've been looking for?"

"All that and more," Xemnas replied.

"This can't be good," Kairi muttered, getting bored of watching two old guys arguing about hearts and other such things.

"I'm carrying on what you yourself began, and I'm creating a brand new world, one heart at a time. I thought you'd praise me, but all you ever do is hold me back," Xemnas proclaimed.

Everyone just rolled their eyes.

"I understand, though. Unlike me, you have a heart. And you're powerless to control it. Consumed, by the jealousy you feel toward the student who surpassed you."

At this point, the Keyblade wielders had gotten bored and sat down on several armchairs that had been conveniently provided and were munching on popcorn. What do you expect? They're all fifteen years old! Why the hell should they have to stand and watch when they could sit and eat popcorn!

"Xehanort." Ash's eyes widened. "Foolish apprentice of a foolish man. You have surpassed nothing—only proved how little we both know." Ansem paused to compose himself, "We may profess to know the heart, but its essence is beyond our reach. We're both ignorant—as oblivious as when we began. I'm afraid that any world you try to create... Any world of yours...would be an empire of ignorance. That is why you and your creation are destined to fall!"

"You tell him Ansem!" Ash shouted, breaking the dramatic mood. Everyone stared at him briefly while he laughed nervously and sweatdropped.

Thankfully, the dramatic mood is stored when Ansem's machine begins to spark with electricity and it surges through the device.

"We've said enough!" Ansem declared before telling Riku that he knew what needed to be done. He then pleaded a clearly distraught King Mickey for forgiveness before the machine shook even more violently and Ansem managed to scream a world of farewell before the machine sparked and exploded causing Ansem to disappear in spectacular fashion.

Xemnas took this as his cue to take his leave and vanished through a portal of darkness.

Ash and Sora tried to make a run for Ansem before the device exploded but to no avail for Riku was holding them back. Mickey also tried to make a run for Ansem but a combined restraint from the female Keyblade wielders made him go limp. Donald tripped as he tried to run in front of Goofy. Light flashed brightly and pushed them backwards in a giant swirling tunnel.

Meanwhile, Millions of hearts fall around the Castle That Never Was. Nobodies danced in the streets. If they could feel, they would probably rejoice at the prospect of getting a heart. Unfortunately, the hearts disappear and Heartless arrive. For every heart lost, a heartless appeared to take its place. Soon, a gigantic horde of Heartless raced up the ramp toward the castle, intent on attacking the group of Keyblade wielders.

The group is currently unconscious on the floor. Ash is the first to wake up and sees Pikachu lying face down nearby. Ash ran over and tried to help but only to see Pikachu jump back onto its perch on his shoulder and loudly proclaim, "That explosion was way cooler than anything Team Rocket has tried to pull!"

"When has anything Team Rocket done been any good?" Ash asked, chuckling.

Several groans could be heard as Ash saw Sora regain consciousness and saw his unconscious silver-hair friend on the ground.

"Wow, he looks really different from before," Pikachu mused.

"Riku!" Sora shouted as he sprinted over to his friend. Riku grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. Ash, Sora, and Pikachu noticed that he had lost the dark hue to his skin and his hair was no longer smooth but still retained the silvery appearance. Now, his eyes were covered by a black blindfold.

"Wow," said Donald and Goofy, clearly impressed.

"Riku!" Kairi said happily.

"Well, Ansem did say 'anything could happen'," Mickey reasoned as Riku seemed to look to where they needed to go even while wear a blindfold.

"Riku, you gonna take that off?" Sora asked, gesturing to the blindfold.

"Oh," Riku muttered as he pulled the blindfold off. Ash watched as it made its descent to the ground and looked back to see Riku blinking a pair of aquamarine colored eyes.

"What was that?" Sora asked, confused. Mickey walked over and explained that his eyes couldn't lie. Sora had no idea what that meant.

"And just who're you trying to fool? Huh? Huuuhhhh?" Sora asked, taunting the older boy. Ash and Pikachu had to stifle a chuckle at Sora's antics.

"Myself," Riku replied seriously.

"Riku, come on man, why'd you try to do so much on your own?" Sora asked. He and Ash ran over to the rest of their friends who had, by this time, regained consciousness. "You got friends; like us!" he loudly proclaimed, gesturing to each in turn as they each gave assurances that they would help.

"Have you forgotten? I'll tell you why," Riku smirked, "Cause I'm not a total sap like you." That opened the floodgate as everyone laughed at Sora's expense.

"Say that again!" Sora demanded, daring the older boy.

Riku made to say it again but a crash stopped them. They turned to see millions of hearts flying towards Kingdom Hearts, which has taken on a darker look like it's infected. They peered down to see several shadows storming the castle.

"Uhhh-ohh," Donald squaked.

"What should we do, Riku?" Sora asked.

"We must defeat Xemnas. He's the Organization's last survivor," Riku replied as he whipped off his Organization robes in spectacular fashion to reveal a black sleevless shirt, white vest, a white bandage wrapped around his left hand, blue jeans, and white sneakers.

"Come on," he stated. "Let's go."

Everyone else stared at Riku's show of leadership as they followed him, fighting nobodies along the way. They find themselves surrounded.

"Riku!" Sora grinned as he started vertically slashing at the nobodies.

"Out of my way!" Riku smirked as he slashed horizontally.

"Is that you got?" Sora and Riku's Keyblades turned into blades of light when they slashed closed range and disappeared altogether when they fired dark aura from their hands.

They spun around slashing at enemies with thirteen blades of light, which reverted back into Keyblades and the wielders threw them to the sky.

"Riku!"

"Gonna lose it all!"

The Keyblades began pulling enemies in, damaging them do and released a giant blast of light, finishing them also.

"Time's up!" Riku smirked as he and Sora fist-bumped.

Needless to say, Ash was impressed.

As was Pikachu.

And Misty.

And Kairi.

And Mickey.

And Goofy.

And Donald.

The list goes on…

After finally finishing off all the nobodies, Kairi looks up and started to point at something before calling, "Sora! Riku!"

Kairi pointed to the hexagonal windows in which Heartless were literally pouring through and coming after them in abundance.

"There's gonna be no end to this!" Riku groaned.

"Together we can stop them!" Sora boldly proclaimed.

'This will be just like the battle at Hollow Bastion,' Ash thought dryly. 'Except not as awesome,' he added as an afterthought.

As though on cue, Maleficent and Pete appear in a flash of smoke.

"Be gone from here! Leave these creatures to us!" Maleficent commanded while thinking, 'This will be perfect to become my liege!'

"But there's no way we can take them all!" Pete tried to reason with the hideous witch.

"I will be sending them after Xemnas," Maleficent smirked, 'Yes my liege go after the hideous man with the girly hair!' "Or perhaps you would rather fight them yourself!" she added as an afterthought.

Pete thought about this for a moment, which was odd and incredibly out of character. "Frankly my dear, I'd rather RUN!" A little difficult for that, don't you think?

"Off with you then!" Maleficent said contemptuously.

Pete backed away until he caught sight of Mickey, "Well if it ain't the boat boy king."

"Time to way anchor, Capn Pete," Mickey replied.

"What like 'abandoned ship'? I don't think so," Pete retorted

"Sora, hat boy, Your Majesty, do not forget. Once I've destroyed them all this castle shall be mine!" Maleficent loudly proclaimed, holding her arms out in dramatic fashion.

"Now lookie here; opportunities like this don't come along every day you know," Pete said as he moved back to Maleficent's side before proclaiming, "Bring 'em on!" They charged at the Heartless head on.

"We gotta hurry!" Mickey proclaimed.

"But…" Sora trailed off as he looked back to two of his enemies helping them by holding off the heartless. Ash and Kairi put hands on each of his shoulders in an attempt to steer him away.

"They're what their hearts command, we can't interfere," Mickey parroted what Riku and Ansem had said earlier.

Sora looked back one more time before facing the hallway that would lead them to Xemnas.

The group walked up the steps in dramatic fashion. Sora walked in the center with Ash (Pikachu perched on his shoulder) and Riku on either side of him. Kairi stood next to Riku while Misty stood next to Ash. Mickey walked behind Sora and Donald and Goofy stood side by side with their King.

They all stared at the remaining member of Organization XIII.

"Oh, my Kingdom Hearts…ruined. Now…I'll have to start all over again," Xemnas lamented. Pikachu snickered at his misfortune.

"Warriors of the Keyblade," Xemnas loudly proclaimed as he turned around. "Go forth and bring me more hearts!"

"No!" all the Keyblade wielders shouted, summoning their weapons.

"Denizens of Light, answer this: why do you hate the darkness?" Xemnas asked.

"We don't really hate it," Ash began.

"It's just kinda…scary," Mickey finished.

"But the world is made of both Light and Darkness; you can't have one without the other 'cause darkness is half of everything," Mickey continued.

"Sorta make you wonder why we are scared of the dark," Ash mused, Keyblade still pointed at the Organization member.

"It's because of who's lurking inside it," Riku responded. Deep, Riku, very deep. Full points for a philosophical answer.

"Then allow me another question," Xemnas began, "You accept darkness yet choose to live in the light, So why is that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We who were turned away from both light and dark. Never given a choice." Xemnas hoped that this would stir some sympathy amongst the group but he was not about to be disappointed.

Kairi and Misty dismissed their Keyblades.

"That's simple," Riku replied coolly, his Keyblade no longer pointed at the enemy, "It's because you messed up our worlds."

"That may be; however, what other choice might we have had?" Okay this is getting ridiculous! Just stop! Don't bother with sympathy anymore.

"Just give it a rest," said Sora impatiently, "You're nobodies. You don't even exist! You're not sad about anything!" Nice one, Sora.

Xemnas chuckled, "Very good! You don't miss a thing." Xemnas paused, "I cannot feel…sorrow." Ash thought he would list out all the things he couldn't feel but was relieved of the boredom when he said, "No matter what misery befalls the worlds. No matter what you think. What you feel. Or how you exist." The last bit said with an air of contempt.

Xemnas raised his arms up to the sky and the platform started shine brightly as everyone covered their eyes.

Sora, Pikachu, and Ash snuck a peak and found themselves standing on a distorted version of the Dark City with Xemnas standing across from them.

"Finally! I get some action!" Pikachu cheered.

Pikachu was the first to react and managed to hit Xemnas with a Thunderbolt that barely did anything. He then proceeded to curse Ash and Sora.

The boys sprinted to the tower where Xemnas urged to "come closer."

"What a pedophile," Pikachu muttered to the boys who had to choke back a laugh as they broke the curse and stared up at Xemnas who smirked back them looking impressive and haunty.

Sora ran up the building with Keyblade in hand while Xemnas jumped down in what Ash thought was an attempt at suicide.

As Sora and Xemnas moved closer together, Sora managed to strike the nobody in the gut before flipping in the air and striking him again in the back. Ash watched in amazement as Sora dived down, blocked Xemnas's ethereal blades and slammed him into the building.

Sora landed safely onto the ground while Ash and Pikachu waited for Xemnas to fall.

They were not disappointed for the trio found a stunned Xemnas falling towards them. Ash took the initiative as he batted him towards Pikachu who batted him towards Sora who managed a strong combo before Xemnas teleported far away from them.

Ash ran towards him, blocking the barrage of blade blows before Pikachu broke it with a Thunderbolt and Ash managed to land several hits where it hurt before Xemnas moved away.

The battle quickly became a rather amusing game of catch chases mouse with Xemnas as the mouse and the Keyblade wielders as the cats.

Amusing games aside, Xemnas cursed Ash who ran back to the building to break the curse. Ash proceeded to run up said building and blocked Xemnas's blades before swiftly dodging another blow and slashing him in the back.

Sora caught the falling Xemnas and landed a heavy combo on the Organization member who was teleporting more quickly now.

Xemnas appeared defenseless but when Sora came in for a strike, he conjured a barrier which send Sora flying and quickly followed up with two blows that Ash had blocked in Sora's stead.

Sora quickly recovered in time to cast several Reflegas to block Xemnas's blade barrage before Pikachu rushed at Xemnas with a Volt Tackle, ending the battle.

"So…it wasn't a fallacy," Xemnas murmured as he faded away. Sora stared at Pikachu before he asked, "What was that move you used, Pikachu."

"It's called Volt Tackle," Ash replied quickly. Sora made to ask another question but a pair of familiar voices cut him off.

"Ash! Sora! Where are you?" they could hear Kairi call. The Dark City illusion was starting to fade into the light.

"Sora! Answer me!" Riku shouted to the cosmos.

"Ash! I swear if you don't answer I'm gonna whack you with my mallet!" Misty threatened. Riku and Kairi sweatdropped.

Ash and Sora appeared out nowhere, landing face first on the platform.

"You're okay!" Mickey stated the obvious.

"Where's Xemnas?" Ash and Sora asked in unison.

Donald looked around and saw Xemnas floating in front of Kingdom Hearts. Cue the dramatic speech about hearts and all of that good stuff.

"What?" Donald squawked.

"Hear me, Kingdom Hearts! It seems we must begin anew," Xemnas lamented, "Ah, but know this: I will give to you as many hearts as it takes. Mark my words!" Talk about dedication, "You can no more be complete without me than I without you. Heed me, Kingdom Hearts! Lend me your power, so that we may be complete! The power to erase the fools that hinder us."

"Xemnas! No!" Mickey shouted.

"Heart's quivering with hatred," Xemnas continued.

"You'll never win!" Donald snapped.

"Hearts burning with rage," Xemnas continued.

"Xemnas! Don't!" Sora screamed.

"Hearts scarred by envy..." Xemnas finished then added, "That fool Ansem said the heart's true nature was beyond his understanding. But it's not beyond mine! Hearts are the source of all power!" the moon glowed blindingly bright and Xemnas disappeared.

"Xemnas! You can't hide from us!" Sora shouted.

"Come out here and face us like a man would!" Misty added her two munny.

"We're not gonna let him get away now!" Mickey declared.

"Look at that!" Kairi exclaimed as a large door bigger than that of Disney castle appeared out of nowhere.

"What's goin' on?" Goofy asked.

"Kingdom Hearts..." said Mickey slowly as he stared at the impressive door.

"Let's go. Xemnas must be inside," said Riku briskly as he also stared at the door.

"The worlds gave us this doorway. They want us to be the guardians of their destiny!" Mickey prophesized while Ash stared at Mickey in shock and nervousness. Why did this sound familiar?

Sora nodded.

"Once we go through, there's no turning back. It's victory...or oblivion," Riku lamented. He turned to Sora and asked, "So, Sora...are you ready?"

Sora was silent.

**Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates that to those who don't, Happy Holidays. I hope to have the final chapter done before the New Year but we'll see how that goes.**


	16. The Final Battle and Return to the World

**Final chapter of this story is finally done. I'm sorry I missed my own deadline by about an hour. Oh well. Anyway, I hope you guys like it and this means all of my stories can be set to complete. And to the question of a sequel. At this point in time, It is probably optimistic to expect a sequel out of me right now…partially because I have no idea what to write about…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part of this story. They either belong to Game Freak, Square Enix, or Yue Twili.**

After gathering all the necessary synthesis materials, Sora, Ash, Misty, and Kairi were able to synthesize Ultima Weapon for everyone. They all admired their weapons and tried them out by having a small sparing contest which led to a draw.

After that Sora, Riku, Ash, and Mickey stood side by side each one holding a Keyblade as they opened the door in dramatic fashion.

"Get ready Xemnas. It all ends here!" Sora proclaimed, shaking his Keyblade slightly.

They all walked through the door and by and saw portions of the World that Never Was were carved into what could be described as the most epic battlefield ever.

"Huh?" Sora and Ash exclaimed, demonstrating their abnormally powerful vision.

They saw Xemnas standing atop a robotic dragon about ten miles away.

"So. It seems that your hearts have led you to obliteration," he lamented.

"Did you hear something?" Ash asked. They all shook their heads. Unfortunately, their hearing wasn't as strong as their vision.

"Can you say that louder! We can't hear you!" Misty screamed, pulling a megaphone out of midair.

Xemnas shrugged and also pulled a megaphone from out of thin air and said as loudly as possible, "So, it seems your hearts have led you to obliteration; perhaps it doesn't pay to be too loyal to one's heart. I will have to be sure and remember that."

The speech would have been more impressive the megaphone didn't make him sound like a kid. Xemnas realized this, lost patience and swung his arm forward. Several buildings slowly lunged forward.

"Oh no! The slowest buildings in the world are gonna crush us!" Pikachu lamented over the rumble of the buildings.

Everyone chuckled at Pikachu's musings as their run slowed to a slow jog which led to the buildings moving more slowly.

"That was easy," Ash chuckled as the buildings crashed into each other and landed onto the ground in front of her but created a rather convenient opening.

However, Misty, Kairi, and Mickey were flung out the room. They weren't important enough...or were they?

"No!" Riku shouted.

"We can take him on our own!" Ash declared confidently as they all summoned their respective weapons.

They all ran forward, Sora and Ash spun their Keyblades before slicing the buildings in true epic fashion in which they slashed through the buildings and they looked fine before they fell apart.

"Let's go!" Ash called as Riku, Pikachu, Donald, and Goofy stared at the boys in shock and awe. Pikachu was drooling.

'I've taught him well,' Pikachu thought, laughing evilly.

After running through the conveniently shaped hole, they ran across the platform and saw more buildings crashing down on them.

"Guys. Here's what we're gonna do," Sora stated as he pulled the others into a huddle, breaking the dramatic tension. "We're gonna jump up slash through three buildings in epic fashion. Then we'll jump from building to building, slashing through other buildings that come flying at us."

"We can do that?" Ash asked. Riku face-palmed. Didn't he and Sora just do that in the other room? Ash has a poor memory.

"Yes, Ash, we can," Pikachu deadpanned.

They nodded as more buildings flew at them. They jumped and slashed through the buildings like Sora described. Pikachu clung to Ash's jacket like his life depended on it, which it kinda did.

Sora led the rest of them to cores where they repeatedly cast Magnega, quickly destroying both energy cores.

In true dramatic fashion, they flew from the dual energy cores and found it unprotected. Ash and Pikachu stood on the lookout while Sora and Riku attacked the energy core. The core quickly conjured a shield to protect itself and several nobodies appeared. Ash and Pikachu worked alongside Donald and Goofy while also keeping Sora and Riku out of harm's way. Not long after, the core was vulnerable and Sora and Riku managed to finish it off.

They proceeded up the hidden elevator, listening to some anticlimactic music.

They eventually made it Xemnas's room. Riku noted the the man was in armor and had weapons from every member in the Organization save for Roxas.

"Not even worth my time," Pikachu muttered as he charged Xemnas with Volt Tackle.

Sora, Ash, Riku, and the others quickly followed the electric mouse's example and charged it down.

Sora quickly finished it off. Xemnas let out a loud sensual groan that made everyone uncomfortable.

They all somehow found themselves back in the place before they stood. All of their friends had returned.

"I need...more rage. I need...more...hearts." Xemnas lamented.

"Xemnas," Sora began.

"There's more to a heart than anger and hate," Ash continued.

"It's full of all kinds of things!" Sora finished.

"Don't you remember?" Ash asked.

"Unfortunately...I don't," Xemnas faded away.

"Gosh, you all did great!" Mickey proclaimed.

Sora noted that Riku was by himself and decided to walk over. "You're coming back with us, right?" He had better. Sora spent the better part of a year looking for the guy and if he refused, Sora would have to knock him out and drag him back.

"I had given in to the darkness," Riku began.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed. Ash heard his albeit girly scream and had to stifle a laugh. Sora was funny. He quickly diverted his attention from the newly reunited friends.

"How am I gonna face everyone?" Riku actually cared what other people thought of him? Guess Riku had a reputation to keep. Sora stared and then an idea.

"Like this!" Sora smacked his hands on his face and squished them toward each other. Riku laughed. The building shook.

"Hurry!" said Mickey quickly.

"I'll open a path," said Riku as he held his hand out in front of him in dramatic fashion…nothing happened. Riku tried again and then Mickey figured it out. Wow, a mouse is smarter than a human? That's one for the record books.

"You don't belong to the dark realm anymore, Riku," Mickey explained. A look of comprehension dawned on everyone's faces before a more important question overtook everyone's minds.

"How do we get out of here, Your Majesty?" Donald asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

They turned around to see a portal conjured seemingly out of thin air. Sora, Kairi, and Ash knew better and saw a familiar blonde hair girl wearing a white dress.

They knew she stared at them briefly before turning around conjuring the portal.

"Who did this?" Donald asked, staring at the portal suspiciously.

"I'm not sure, but we better hurry and get through," said Mickey seriously. Suddenly, out of nowhere, and something no one would have suspected: Pluto appeared and tackled Mickey to the ground and then licked him mercilessly. Pluto got off Mickey and ran into the portal. Mickey followed suit.

"C'mon!" Donald ran into the portal.

"Wait for me!" Goofy shouted as he chased after Donald.

"Thank you, Namine," Kairi said as Namine appeared and a second later, Luna was right beside her.

"Sure," she said with a smile. To Sora, "We meet again, like we promised."

"You said we'd meet again," Roxas and Rallen appeared in unison, "But when we did, we might recognize each other." Rallen chuckled.

"We did, didn't we," she smiled at Luna who watched on with amusement.

"But we all knew each other," stated a smiling Roxas. For her part, Luna looked wistful as though wishing that they could relive all the good times they had with each other.

"Mmm…it's strange isn't it," Luna stated.

"It all makes sense!" Rallen exclaimed to Luna, "I see myself the way you remember me and you see yourself the way I remember you!"

"That means we can be together again!" Roxas, Rallen, Namine, and Luna all said simultaneously. They were clearly excited…almost like…chibis.

Roxas and Rallen stood beside Namine and Luna respectively and said, "Anytime Sora and Kairi and Ash and Misty are together."

"We'll be together every day, right Sora?" Kairi asked sweetly. Misty caught the conversation and stared at Ash who nodded vigorously. It was easy; after all they're friends, right?

"Uh, yeah," said Sora, startled.

Kairi took Namine's hand and the blonde glows brightly before fading away; the remnants of the light gliding towards Kairi.

Luna and Misty clasped hands and the Luna slowly faded as the light that had once been Luna glided towards the Water type trainer.

"Look sharp!" Rallen and Roxas exclaimed, shaking their heads as Sora and Ash stood up abnormally straight and staring their nobodies straight in the eye.

Both nobodies gave one last smirk before they both faded away to their respective Others. They both glow brightly before they check themselves.

Riku chuckled. "Don't worry," he said at their worried looks. "You're all still you."

"That's good," Ash nodded.

"I'll say," Misty sighed, relieved.

"Riku…c'mon," Sora said, determined.

"Yeah," said Riku, smirking.

The three boys followed the girls and Pikachu to the portal who were already there.

"Come on, let's go home!" Kairi proclaimed happily as she, Misty, and Pikachu stepped through the portal.

"Sora! Ash! Riku!" All three girls exclaimed.

The portal began to fade and the three Keyblade wielders quickly raced toward it but it was too late. It was gone.

"What?" Ash muttered, hand ready to summon his Keyblade.

There was a flash of light and the three spot a nesting core off in the distance. The core disappears to reveal a giant flying mecha dragon that burst out of the core and flew toward them. It knocked into the castle tower and roared almost like a real dragon would roar. The tower broke and started to collapse. Sora, Ash, and Riku slide toward the ground. Riku spotted a hovercraft and ran toward it in true ninja like fashion.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed. Seriously? Sora, you need to come up with something other than that or else more yaoi fangirls will have ammunition to write Sora/Riku fanfictions. But that's for later…

Riku jumped off the tower and skillfully landed on the driver's seat of the craft and quickly took off while thinking, 'Later suckers!'

Sora and Ash had two very different reactions.

'NOOOOO! I'm going to die alone!' Sora had anime tears pouring down his face while Ash's reaction was very different.

'That selfish jerk! I'm gonna wring his neck when I get ahold of him,' Ash fumed as he watched the silver-haired boy fly back towards them.

"Guys!" Riku called. Sora eagerly hopped aboard one platform while Ash jumped onto the other one but not before choking Riku and demanded an apology. Riku reluctantly did this but they quickly persued the mechanical dragon and destroyed all the parts of the mecha with ease.

The guys watch in confusion, interest, and horror as the dragon disappeared they find that it has come back to life but was immobile. That was a relief.

Riku flew the guys to the head and jumped off. They watched as the hovercraft was sucked into the nothingness that they realized was the degraded Kingdom Hearts.

They summoned their Keyblades.

"I couldn't tell her," Sora muttered as he stared at the armored Xemnas.

"Hm?" Ash and Riku looked at their mutual friend.

"It should have been easy to say thanks to Namine, but I couldn't say it. Not until things were back the way they were," said Sora sadly.

"Don't worry," said Ash calmly, "I already thanked her for you!"

Sora stared and breathed a sigh of relief though still resolved to thank her himself when he got the chance.

"Don't worry," Riku stated as though reading Sora's thoughts. "Once this is over, you can thank her anytime that you want."

"Yeah," Sora replied.

The armored Xemnas raised his head and swiped his sword at them, which missed. The trio fought together until Xemnas sent them into the abyss.

Thankfully, this was easily remedied by Ash and Riku riding a building that Sora had shot. They both proceed to slash the building to pieces, pelting the immobile dragon and giving them all a chance to glide back to platform and finish him off; hopefully for the last time.

At the final strike, there was a flash of light and Sora, Ash, and Riku appeared in a gray void-like area. Xemnas stood before them in a black and white outfit that reminded the trio of something like a zebra of sorts.

"Heroes from the realm of light... I will not allow it to end this way—not yet. If light and darkness are eternal, then surely we nothings must be the same... Eternal!" said Xemnas dramatically.

"You're right, light and darkness are eternal. Nothing probably goes on forever, too. But guess what, Xemnas?" said Riku coolly.

"That doesn't mean YOU'RE eternal!" said Sora and Ash together.

"No more eternal than that radiance of yours..." Xemnas chuckled as the boys summoned their Keyblades and dodged Xemnas strikes and balls of ethereal blue energy.

Then a thought.

"Ash!" Sora called.

Ash looked over as he cast several Reflega spells at an overly zealous Xemnas who was firing small laser bullets at him.

"Let's do this!" Ash fired back as they fired several light Aura Spheres at the Nobody. The two Keyblade wielders moved closer and slashed Xemnas with their Keyblades before moving to either side and slashing him from either side.

"Let's go!"

"Light!"

Both boys stood on top of a Pokeball symbol and stabbed at a ball of light that resembled a Pokeball which released massive amounts of energy and stunning Xemnas all in one go.

Xemnas seized his opportunity to trap Ash in a blue sphere and sapped away his health. Riku distracted the clone while Sora felt his heart burn with anger and with this newfound power he raced towards his friend and freed him from his magic prison.

Sora, Riku, and Ash blocked an oncoming barrage of red lasers in true Keyblader fashion. Everything ended in an explosion of sorts.

Riku found himself awkwardly position and blocked an oncoming attack on Sora while Ash blocked the oncoming attack at Riku. Ash handed Sora his Keyblade and he stabbed Xemnas in the heart while he, Riku and Sora pointed their Keyblades at Xemnas and a beam of light hit him, finishing him off. '

Xemnas faded away.

"We did it!" Sora cheered. Ash grinned.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," said Riku grimly. They saw themselves surrounded by hundreds of Dusks but a flash of light saw them all disappear.

Ash panted as he fell to the ground. Sora quickly pulled him to his side.

"Sora," Riku panted, on hands and knees, "I can't."

"Don't say another word," Sora cut Riku off. "It's not over. It's just not." "That goes for you too," he added to Ash who raised his hands innocently.

Sora pulled Riku's arm over his shoulder and Ash does the same with other arm, finding strength in his aura.

"How can you say that?" Riku asked in disbelief, "Even if we could go on. Look where we are…" his voice trailed off.

"Aw, come on Riku," said Ash brightly.

"Ya gotta try and think positive," Sora finished, even more brightly.

"Guys?" Riku asked.

"Hm?" Both boys replied in unison

"You lead," he stated.

"Got it," said Ash as they start walking with no set destination in mind. They just continue to walk…wondering aimlessly through the light and the dark and Ash decided to give Sora and Riku some time alone.

"You know... I always figured I was better at stuff than you," said Riku, chuckling.

"Really?" said Sora dryly.

"Are you mad?" he asked. Sora shook his head and confessed that he kinda always thought that he was better at everything as well. Sora looked ahead and pointed out the obvious proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel' as they walk straight into it and onto a dark beach.

"End of the road?" Ash asked, speaking for the first time.

"Yep," Sora nodded.

"Put me down. I can walk," Riku told the two boys who helped him stand and they both to the water.

Sora stared out at the beach, mulling over his adventure, "You know...maybe the darkness has gotten to me, too."

Ash stared out at the beach as well and reflected over his Battle Frontier journey and especially his memory of being possessed. After thinking that, he believed that the darkness had also gotten to him despite his upbeat attitude.

Sora turned around and saw Riku lying on the ground. He quickly ran back to his friend while calling out his name.

"This world is perfect for me," said Riku quietly as he stared at the sand, "If this is what the world really

is...just this," he paused to consider his words, "Then maybe I should fade back into darkness."

"Riku..." Sora trailed off.

"If the world is made of light and darkness... We'll be the darkness," said Riku as the three of them sat at close to the water. Ash privately preferred to be the light after experiencing the kind of darkness he had seen.

"Yeah. The other side...the realm of light is safe now. Misty, Kairi, the King, and the others are there," said Ash, staring out at the seemingly endless sea.

"That's what I mean." A pause. "Hey, guys... Could you help me? I want to get down to the water," Sora nodded as he helped Riku up and for all intents and purposes, dragged him closer to the water. Ash is close behind in case they need any more help.

"At least the waves sound the same," Riku muttered as they headed to the water's edge. The three of them sat there for a time before Riku broke the silence.

"I'm gonna go check this place out," said Ash as he stood up. "Call me if you make any discoveries." Ash took off. Now it was just Sora and Riku.

"What I said back there...about thinking I was better at stuff than you..." Sora stared at his best friend, "To tell you the truth, Sora... I was jealous of you."

"What for?" Sora asked, bewildered.

"I wished I could live life the way you do. Just following my heart," said Riku. If only if were that easy.

"Yeah, well, I've got my share of problems, too," said Sora dryly.

"Like what?" asked Riku, genuinely curious.

"Like...wanting to be like you," said Sora softly.

"Well, there is one advantage to being me... Something you could never imitate," Riku stated with a smirk and Sora looked taken aback and started blabbering questions.

"Having you for a friend," Sora was flattered. He then grinned and said that he was okay the way he was then told Riku that he had something that he could never imitate either. They look up at the starless sky and close their eyes, feeling the breeze on their skin and hearing the sound of the waves. A bottle washed up between Riku's legs and he picked it up and opened it. There was a note inside and he read the letter.

"Sora?" Riku asked. Sora looked over and he handed Sora the letter with a quiet, "I think it's for you."

"Thinking of you, wherever you are," Sora began. Then Kairi's voice began to echo in but could only be heard by the reader. "We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend. Now I will step forward to realize this wish."

At this point Sora's voice has faded away from the reader's attention and now it's all Kairi, "And who knows: Starting a new journey may not be so hard…or maybe it has already begun. There are many worlds, but they share the same sky—one sky, one destiny."

A light appears over the water before Sora and Riku. Sora called Ash over who quickly sprinted over to the spiky haired duo and saw a rectangle of light on top of the water.

"Light," Riku commented.

"The door to light..." Ash breathed, not daring to believe it. Sora stood up and offered Riku his hand before saying that they could all go together. Both boys nodded in agreement before they all walk into the light like astronauts walk on the moon.

The waves at the Destiny Islands were relatively calm as two falling stars grace the sky. Sora and Riku landed in the water, and quickly surfaced.

"Sora! Riku!" Kairi shouted.

They look and see Kairi waving to them on the shore. Sora and Riku began to swim to the shore. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy run past Kairi to the water, much to Sora's surprise. Goofy and Donald jump on Sora and knock him back into the water. Sora sat up as Goofy hugged him and Donald wiped his eye. Mickey sprinted to Riku, who picked him up and spun him around like they were lovers. Donald and Goofy hugged Sora and looked at Mickey and Riku. Kairi giggled, smiling.

"W-We're back," said Sora sheepishly.

"You're home," Kairi said happily as she held out her hand. Sora grabbed it eagerly before noticing the lack of a raven haired Pokemon trainer, his Pokemon and redhead gym leader.

"They returned to their own world," Kairi answered.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside of Pallet Town.

Ash found himself standing on one of the hills and realized that his friends were probably at his house waiting for some sign that he survived.

He ran to his house and found several stares locked on him.

Ash found himself caught in what could be described as a giant bear hug between all of his Pokemon, his traveling companions and his mother.

"Where have you been, Ash!" May and Max asked and Delia was as keen to hear this story.

Poor Ash. He just couldn't catch a break, could he?

**The End**

**Thank you everyone for reading this. Thank you Yue Twili for allowing me to finish. I hope I depicted everyone as in character as well as I could and if you can, please tell me what you think. **


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